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HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 
1890—1906 



MEMOIR OF 

HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Late Justice qfthe Supreme Court (if the United States 



CONSISTING OF AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
WITH ADDITIONS TO HIS LIFE 



BY 

CHARLES A. KENT 

OF THE DETROIT BAR 




NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD & COMPANY 

1915 






COPRIGHT, 1915 

By CHARLES A. KENT 



VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY 

BINQHAMTON AND NEW YORK 




NOV -9 (915 
)GI,A416290 



PREFACE 

November 1, 1859, I entered the law office of Walker 
& Eussell, of Detroit, Michigan, as a student of law. 

The next month another student, Henry Billings 
Brown, came into the same office. 

The friendship then begun continued without inter- 
ruption until his death, and the intimacy, though some- 
times greater or less, according as we met, was without 
a break. I did what I could to aid in securing his 
judicial appointments. While he was District Judge, 
I argued several cases before him, though the bulk of 
my practice was in the State courts; after he went to 
Washington, I saw him several times, and conversed 
with him freely on almost every topic. I have pre- 
served many letters from him, mainly those written 
after his retirement. I had few cases before the Su- 
preme Court while Justice Brown was on the bench. 
His reputation as Judge depends mainly on his pub- 
lished opinions. What is thought of him as District 
Judge, I know from talk with other lawyers practising 
in that court and from my personal knowledge. I 



vi PEEFACE 

have been especially aided in judging of him in ad- 
miralty matters by an able letter from George L. Can- 
field, an admiralty lawyer. I have a letter from his 
college classmate, Hon. Chauncey Depew, New York 
Senator for two terms, about his college days and sub- 
sequent life as Supreme Justice. I have also a letter 
from Justice W. E. Day, now of the United States 
Supreme Court, concerning Justice Brown's career on 
that bench. 

From 1855, when in college, to 1875, when Mr. 
Brown became District Judge, he kept yearly diaries 
which I have, in which almost every day he made a 
memorandum of any incident of special interest. In 
many of these diaries, he made, at the end of a year, a 
review of it, so far as events impressed him. In these 
diaries Mr. Brown kept an account of his expenses. 
During the last years of his life, in Washington, he 
kept expense books, which I have. I have not found 
his accounts as a lawyer when in practice. I have 
various other memoranda, which he made after he 
went to Washington, concerning the books he read and 
intended to read, about his health, the friends he saw, 
his journeys, etc. 

I have had some experience in writing biographical 
sketches of eminent lawyers, after their death, and have 
found it paid to collect the facts of their earlier lives. 



PREFACE vii 

Many years ago I stated this experience to Justice 
Brown and suggested that he leave a memorandum of 
such facts, as to his own life. Perhaps in consequence 
he made the autobiographical sketch herein published, 
and left word to have me add to it as I thought best, 
but adding that he did not want a long biography. 

In my work I have received every assistance from 
Justice Bro\vn's relatives and especially from his 
widow, and sister-in-law, Mrs. Daniel Goodwin. Still, 
for what is written I am alone responsible. It is 
hardly possible that a life so uniform and so free from 
striking incidents can be made interesting to the gen- 
eral public. At the most, I can hope that what I write 
may be read by Justice Brown's friends and members 
of the bar, who may wish to know the steps by which 
one of their number attained and honoured the dis- 
tinguished positions of United States District and Su- 
preme Court Judge. I desire to present my subject 
exactly as he was, with his deficiencies as well as his 
virtues, or rather, I wish to have him present himself, 
as he does in his diaries and letters. In these Justice 
Brown gave his opinions with the utmost freedom as to 
persons as well as things. Herein lies the interest in 
these diaries and letters. I have hesitated how far to 
quote what he has written when it is not commendatory, 
but I have thought best in general to give what he says 



viii PEEFACE 

of public men and public events. His opinions are 
sometimes hasty and may be unjust, but they reveal him 
with great distinctness. There was absolute sincerity 
in all he wrote and said. As Justice Brown's auto- 
biography touches on almost all periods of his life, I 
see no way but to add such facts as appear interest- 
ing, or instructive, and then give such judgment of 
him as a man and a judge as appears just. 

C. A. K. 



MEMOIR OF 
HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 



MEMORANDA FOR 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

I was born of a New England Puritan family in 
which there has been no admixture of alien blood for 
two hundred and fifty years. Though Puritans, my 
ancestors were neither bigoted nor intolerant — upon 
the contrary some were unusually liberal. 

The earliest known member of the family, Edward 
Brown, emigrated to New England soon after the land- 
ing of the Pilgrims, settled in Ipswich, Essex County, 
Massachusetts, and owned a tract of land there as early 
as 1640. His grandson, John Brown, in the later years 
of the seventeenth century moved to the North Society 
of Preston, Connecticut, now known as Griswold, where 
some of his descendants have since resided. 

My maternal ancestor, most remote. Job Tyler, set- 
tled in Andover, not far from Ipswich, and from him 
are descended a large family of that name who are 
scattered through New England. His grandson, Hope- 



2 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN 

still Tyler, also moved to Preston, Connecticut, in 1704. 
The reason assigned for his removal was the trial of 
his wife and daughters for witchcraft. Although they 
were acquitted, they became disgusted with the eccle- 
siastical rule in Massachusetts, and joined a somewhat 
general movement to more congenial surroundings in 
Connecticut. Hopestill left a large family of children, 
from whom are descended Gen. John Tyler and his 
nephew, Lieut.-Col. Samuel Tyler, my great grand- 
father, of Eevolutionary repute, Prof. Moses Coit Tyler, 
of Cornell University, and Mrs, Eoosevelt, wife of the 
President. 

The Browns and Tylers were connected by neighbour- 
hood, political and religious sympathies, and by inter- 
marriage. Lieut.-Col. Samuel Tyler married my 
father's aunt, Judith Brown, and their granddaughter 
subsequently married my father, Billings Brown, who 
after a time removed to South Lee, Massachusetts, 
where I was born March 2, 1836. My father, though 
not an educated, was a most intelligent man, and a 
great reader of history and biography, with occasional 
incursions into the domain of poetry and romance. 
Like many of his generation he was a great admirer of 
Burns. My mother was a woman of great strength of 
character and pronounced religious convictions. For a 
country girl, she had been well educated in the con- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 3 

ventional accomplishments of the day, and was quite 
an adept at painting and drawing. She was fond of 
literature, read good books and wrote with much facility. 
She was strict in the performance of her religious 
duties, insistent upon her sons' attendance upon church, 
and was, in short, a typical Puritan mother. 

Keeping a diary as she did during the early years 
of my life, she remarks on the second anniversary of 
my birth (March 2, 1838): "Henry knows all the 
letters in the alphabet, large and small. He has not 
learned them by rote, but the capitals mostly from 
newspapers by spreading them upon the floor and point- 
ing to the letters and looking to us for the names; for 
when he commenced, which was in January, he could 
speak but few of them, he now sounds all, though 
some in a broken manner. The small letters he learned 
by their being pasted upon a thin, white cloth promiscu- 
ously; these he has learned in less time than the cap- 
itals, and what is singular has no tendency to the 
common perplexity in distinguishing the little ' b ' from 
' d ' or ' p ' from ' q.' Books are his source of amuse- 
ment." 

Upon the fifth anniversary she says : " He has made 
good proficiency the past year for his advantages. He 
has not been to school and has nothing to stimulate him 
but his inclinations. We find it necessary to divert his 



4 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

mind from his books on account of his eyes failing him. 
I have thoughtlessly indulged him in reading evenings 
the winter past, but seldom as long as he wished, yet 
I now see my error and lament it exceedingly." An 
inflammation of the eyelids, thus produced, has pursued 
me through life, resulting in the complete loss of the 
sight of one eye, the partial loss of the other, and a 
threat of total blindness constantly hovering over me. 

South Lee was a small manufacturing village, and 
among my earliest recollections is that of sitting in a 
forge, watching the sparks fly from the trip hammer 
and marvelling why water was used to stimulate in- 
stead of extinguishing fires. I was also fond of watch- 
ing the various processes in the manufacture of paper, 
which was largely carried on in the village. I had a 
natural fondness for machinery and was never so happy 
as when allowed to " assist " at the sawing of logs and 
shingles and the grinding of grain in my father's mills. 
Indeed it is not at all improbable that I should have 
succeeded him in his business, had he not decided in 
1845 to sell his entire plant and move to Stockbridge — 
the adjoining town. Up to this time I had attended 
only a district conmion school in which, however, I was 
not too young to overlook the fact that I was rather 
popular with my teachers, since when the " ruler " was 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 5 

passed along for a general application, I was given the 
fewest and lightest strokes of any member of the class. 
But when I went home I used to think that my father 
took a grim satisfaction in atoning for any delinquen- 
cies of the schoolmaster in this particular, and thus 
restoring the equilibrium. But I was naturally 
obedient, and when my father said to me one day, " My 
boy, I want you to become a lawyer," I felt that my 
fate was settled, and had no more idea of questioning 
it than I should have had in impeaching a decree of 
Divine Providence. It certainly was not a bad idea in 
my case, as it settled the doubts which boys usually have 
regarding their future. It also had an important effect 
in directing my studies. In the same conversation, 
speaking of a certain man, said to be rich, I asked him 
how much a man must be worth to be rich. He said 
that much depended upon the locality and surroundings, 
but that in the country portions of New England he 
had always considered a man to be rich who was worth 
$20,000. This was certainly a modest estimate, but 
when we consider that this amount invested at the then 
current rate of six per cent, yielded an income of $1200, 
and that not one man in a hundred then spent more 
than $1000 per year for his family expenses, it will be 
seen that my father spoke well within the truth, al- 



6 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN" 

though in the sixty-five years that have since elapsed, a 
man in the Berkshire Hills with an income of $20,000 
is not considered to be very rich. 
" Upon our removal to Stockbridge in 1845, I was en- 
tered as a scholar at the Academy and began the study 
of Latin, which I have always thought and still think, 
should be the foundation of the intellectual equipment 
of every educated man. I soon discovered that my 
strength, as well as my inclination, lay in the direction 
of languages rather than of mathematics. The school 
was an excellent one, and I was quick to perceive that 
the pupils were of a class much superior to the factory 
children I had met in the District School at South Lee. 
Stockbridge was then as now one of the most beautiful 
of New England villages, and the centre of much literary 
and civic activity. Its leading families — the Sedg- 
wicks, the Dwights, the Fields, and the Goodriches — 
were among the first in the Commonwealth, and many 
of their younger members have since risen to high rank 
in the National Judiciary and Politics. ' While the vil- 
lage had lost the little commercial importance it had 
possessed in the earlier years of the century, even yet 
evident in a row of dilapidated shops and a newspaper 
office, it had fully replaced them by beautiful houses, 
stately rows of elms, and wide, well kept streets. It was 
then considered the gem of the Berkshire Hills, al- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 7 

though within the past fifty years other villages, notably 
Lenox, have risen to a position, where they may justly 
claim to be candidates for the same title. 

The only drawback to the pleasure of living in the 
Berkshire Hills is, the winter's snow begins to fall in 
November, and sleighing sometimes continues as late 
as April. For three months in the year the roads, and 
sometimes the fences are invisible, and occasionally the 
houses and outbuildings are buried beneath drifts of 
snow. We occupied a house in the centre of the village, 
subsequently tenanted by Mr. Choate, and I saw nothing 
to indicate that we were not to treat Stockbridge as a 
permanent home, until the word was passed around that 
we were to return to Connecticut. Whether this was 
due to the harshness of the climate or to a restlessness 
more natural to a Western pioneer than a New England 
country gentleman, which always characterised my 
father's actions, I never knew; but it was suddenly an- 
nounced that he had bought a new home in the little 
village of Ellington, Tolland County, Connecticut, to 
which we removed in the spring of 1849. 

Ellington was a pleasant and rather picturesque vil- 
lage, upon the edge of the Connecticut River Valley. 
Its streets were wide, and through the enterprise and 
foresight of one of its earlier citizens, had been planted 
with rows of graceful elms. It had the usual equip- 



8 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN" 

ment of a country village — a church, a tavern, and 
post-office, a " store," a " squire," a doctor, and a den- 
tist — and was not altogether free from the rival factions 
so common in such communities, where each side 
" spake fair " to the other, but with somewhat of a 
rancour and bitterness in their hearts. A daily stage 
was the sole means of communication with the outer 
world, and its arrival was always looked for with in- 
terest by a group of eager bystanders. Life was peace- 
ful, but not exciting. As there were no manufactories, 
there was no smoke; as automobiles had not been in- 
vented, there was little dust, and never a foul smell; 
and as there was no commerce, there was not the rum- 
bling of carts and heavy wagons. The principal amuse- 
ments were an annual donation party, a decennial " re- 
vival," a winter sleigh ride, and an occasional " small 
and early " evening party. No disturbance was ever 
heard in its streets and the travelling circuses thought 
it beneath their notice. A photograph car stopped 
there once in a great while, but never to remain more 
than a few days. In short, if one could " put away " 
all ambition and be content with the simplest of lives, 
Ellington was an ideal residence. Notwithstanding its 
drawbacks to an active minded man, I liked it and 
still admire its quiet beauty, tliough I might not have 
been satisfied to spend my life there. When I left, it 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 9 

was with the determination to become a country squire 
which then filled the measure of my ambition. The 
introductions of a railway and also a trolley line has 
done but little to change the appearance of the village 
beyond putting it in closer connection with the 
metropolis of that region — the City of Hartford. 

The High School of the village, which had once been 
famous and given character to the whole county, had 
degenerated so much that I was sent to the Academy 
at Monson, Massachusetts, of which Eev. Chas. Ham- 
mond was then the principal. Of all the teachers with 
whom I had then come in contact, Mr. Hammond was 
easily the first. In addition to being an eloquent and 
appreciative instructor, he had the happy faculty of 
winning the affection of his scholars, and completely 
forestalling the natural antagonism between teacher 
and taught, which is frequently the source of irritation 
between them. The school at Monson had not the 
reputation of the much larger schools at Easthampton 
or Andover, but I doubt much if it were not their equal 
in management and course of instruction. I continued 
my preparatory studies here for two years, and in the 
autumn of 1852 entered Yale College as a member of 
the class of 1856. 

Yale was very different then from what it is at 
present. In 1852 it was a comparatively small college 



10 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

of less than seven hundred students in all its depart- 
ments. It is now a university with over seven thou- 
sand. But two buildings then standing still remain — 
South Middle, preserved as a relic of the old Brick Row, 
and the Library, the first of the new buildings and the 
pride of the College. All the rest have been demolished 
to make room for a handsome stone quadrangle. But 
even the buildings, though meagre, did not compare un- 
favourably with those of Harvard and Princeton, Yale's 
principal competitors. There were few very rich people 
in the country, and money was hard to raise for educa- 
tional enterprises. 

Though not badly prepared, I made a mistake in 
entering at sixteen — two years younger than the aver- 
age of the class. Two years is a short time in the life 
of a man, but as between two boys in their teens of 
equal natural ability, the younger is handicapped by 
his age. I did not have the rooms or companionship 
I aspired to, and for the first two years I felt that I was 
not doing myself justice. At the end of my Sophomore 
year I resolved upon a reform, took new rooms in the 
Brick Row, changed my boarding place and became 
associated with a difi^erent class of men. I had some 
prejudices to overcome, but I finally succeeded in grad- 
uating, not with a high, but with a highly respectable, 
standing. * The class of 1856 was not rated above the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 11 

average in college, but since graduation many of my 
classmates have risen to positions of eminence, and 
raised the general standing of the class to an equality 
with any which graduated in that decade, except the 
famous class of 1853, to which we all make respectful 
obeisance. Among the more distinguished were Mr. 
Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, Senator Depew of New York, easily the leading 
man of his class while in College, Chief Justice Magruder 
of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Prof. Lewis R. 
Packard of Yale, Prof. Levi L. Paine of Bangor 
Theological Seminary, John Mason Brown of Ken- 
tucky, and Dr. Wolcott Calkins. " 

As I recall the four years I spent at Yale and revisit 
now the same scenes, I seem to have passed from 
medigevalism to modern life. The rooms, though not 
particularly uncomfortable, were shabby and received 
but slight attention from the " Professor of Dust and 
Ashes." All the accessible parts of the woodwork had 
been profusely illustrated by the pocket knives of 
former generations. The sanitary arrangements, if 
such they can be called, were primitive to the last de- 
gree. The hours of work were equally so. In winter 
we rose before dawn, attended morning prayers and a 
recitation by gaslight, then just introduced into the 
public rooms, but not into the dormitories, and sat 



12 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

down to breakfast about sunrise. A daily walk to the 
post office was all the exercise we could afford except 
on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Attendance 
at chapel twice a day on Sunday was compulsory. 
There were no athletics except an occasional (yearly) 
football game between Sophomores and Freshmen, a 
boat club and an annual regatta with Harvard instituted 
and rowed at Springfield or Worcester. The frolics of 
those days — the sadly misnamed " Statements of 
Facts " to the entering class, the Burial of Euclid, 
Biennial Jubilee, Wooden Spoon Exhibition, etc. — have, 
I believe, passed into oblivion, and given place to an 
elaborate system of athletics which goes far toward fix- 
ing the standard of popularity of a modern university. 
Wliether the wide expansion of the optional studies and 
the prominence given to athletic development adds or 
detracts from the value of the University as an educa- 
tional institution, is a problem which can only be solved 
by the actual experience of those who have had occa- 
sion to compare the working of the new systems with 
the results of the old. It is not to be wondered at that 
graduates under the former regime of prescribed 
studies, with little opportunity for choice, should look 
with some distrust upon a theory which almost pre- 
supposes that a boy has already chosen his profession 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 13 

when he enters college and selects his course of studies 
with reference to that. 

After graduation, my father, who was most kind and 
indulgent, albeit somewhat hot tempered, offered me a 
year in Europe. It is needless to say that I eagerly 
seized upon this opportunity, then comparatively rare, 
of seeing something of the older world. The result 
justified my expectations, and I have always regarded 
that year (from November, 1856, to November, 1857) 
as the most valuable of my life from an educational 
point of view. Indeed a year of actual observation is 
a most befitting supplement to four years of study. 
Taken at just this time, it had a strong tendency to 
correct any false impressions, born of national pride 
or patriotism, to expand our political and religious 
views, and to teach the lessons so hard to learn at home, 
that while we have accomplished much in the direction 
of a higher civilisation, we have still much to learn. 

A long voyage of twenty-two days in a sailing vessel 
afforded a convenient occasion for certain preparatory 
work in brushing up a most imperfect laiowledge of 
French and German, and in familiarising myself with 
the countries I was about to visit. At that time nine- 
tenths of the passenger traffic with Europe was already 
carried on by steamships, although one or two of the 



14 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

old Packet lines still struggled for a feeble existence 
and soon succumbed. If the accommodations were rude, 
and the fare plain, there was some compensation in the 
opportunity it gave for study and acquaintance with 
sea life. Being the only passenger, no attempt was 
made to conceal or disguise its hardships and brutali- 
ties. The seamen were the most ignorant and degraded 
foreigners — the very scum of European and American 
ports. Their treatment seemed to be intended to accord 
with their rank. They were fed upon the coarsest of food, 
and beaten without mercy, even to the shedding of blood, 
for the slightest dereliction from what the officers con- 
ceived to be their duty. I had heard that seamen in 
the merchant marine were treated with great harshness, 
but never till actual experience had I grasped the extent 
of its brutality. I had never heard of anything of the 
kind upon passenger steamships, nor indeed in recent 
years upon sailing vessels, except upon the oyster boats 
of Chesapeake Bay. Much of this improvement is due 
to the advancing civilisation of the age, and to the efforts 
of societies for the protection of seamen and the 
amelioration of their condition. 

If within the past fifty years America has made mar- 
vellous progress in a material sense, the changes in 
Europe have been scarcely less noticeable. In 1856 
Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Swit^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 15 

zerland were already well supplied by railways, while 
France had only a few lines, and Italy and Spain prac- 
tically none at all. The hotels were small, with the 
exception of tlie Hotel du Louvre in Paris, then just 
completed, and not to be compared in size with the 
leading hostelries in New York, though far exceeding 
them in comfort and in the quality of their food. But 
it is to American initiative, and the demands of Amer- 
ican tourists, they owe their " modern conveniences," 
the use of ice, of lifts or elevators, then unknown, elec- 
tric lighting, furnace heating, and, best of all, the 
private bathroom. But America is fast losing the 
supremacy she once possessed, and the fact that the 
expense of living at a European inn is scarcely more 
than half that at an American hotel of corresponding 
class, is quite sufficient to account for the enormous 
annual rush to Europe as the pleasantest and cheapest 
place to spend the summer. 

The political changes during the past half century 
are the most noticeable of all. France, then an empire 
under the last of the Bonapartes, is now a prosperous 
republic, though paying for the transformation by the 
loss of two of her richest provinces. The German Em- 
pire then did not exist. Italy was divided into nearly 
a dozen different states, independent, but generally des- 
potic and without the pretence of a representative body. 



16 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN 

Each seemed to vie with the others in repressing all 
attempts at popular government. Many, if not most 
of them, raised a large portion of their revenue from 
State Lotteries. Even the Church, then in the active 
exercise of its temporal power, not only tolerated, but 
also fostered them. Lombardy and Venice were both 
provinces of Austria. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 
the most enlightened of Italian States, had made an 
effort to expel them in 1848, but was decisively defeated 
at the Battle of Navaro. 

Rome, in its outward appearance, had been prac- 
tically unchanged for three hundred years. Few new 
houses had been built, but little excavation of the ruins 
had been made, and it still continued a thoroughly 
mediaeval city. Its population has since doubled and 
new quarters have arisen — among the finest in Europe. 
Utterly unable to cope with the rising tide of popular 
sentiment, the government could only maintain its au- 
thority by the aid of a French garrison in Rome and 
an Austrian garrison in Bologna. When these were 
withdrawn in consequence of the war between France 
and Austria, the people rose and made short work of 
Bourbon and Papal domination. 

Naples, though beautiful in its surroundings, was 
not an especially attractive city. Its government en- 
joyed the distinction of being one of the worst in Eu- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 17 

rope. It was strongly fortified, but I could not but 
notice that its guns were all pointed inward — against 
the city, as if to sweep the streets, in case of an insur- 
rection, and not outward to repel an invader. King 
Ferdinand, the so-called Bomba, was supported by an 
army of ignorant peasants, and by the " lazzaroni " who 
were then quite a political power. They were per- 
mitted to lie half-naked about the streets, exhibiting 
publicly their deformities as an appeal to the sympathies 
of the passers-by. The filth of the city was beyond the 
decencies of description — degradation of the conmion 
people beyond anything I have ever seen. It was but a 
few years after this that Garibaldi, with a small force, 
invaded the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, defeated its 
army, put the King to flight and united it to the King- 
dom of Italy. While in the moral character of its in- 
habitants there is much to be desired, Naples itself is 
clean, orderly and apparently well governed. 

These travels, which included practically all of West- 
ern Europe, except Spain, occupied an entire year and 
really constituted a post-graduate course of the greatest 
value. In November, 1857, I returned home, this time 
in a steamship, and at once betook myself to the Squire's 
office in Ellington, and plunged into that most fasci- 
nating of law books — " Blackstone's Commentaries." 
I shall not enter into the details of my life there. I 



18 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN 

studied faithfully and mingled somewhat in the simple 
social life of the village. But as at that time there was 
a general revival in progress, in which I took no active 
part, I fear my conduct did not elicit the approval of 
the ecclesiastical authorities, and that I was looked upon 
rather as a warning than an example. But my con- 
science was " void of offence," and I still see nothing to 
regret or apologise for. 

In the following autumn I returned to New Haven, 
entered the Law School and remained until spring, when 
I went to Camhridge for a course of six months at Har- 
vard Law School. Tliis was really the pleasantest and 
most profitable experience of my student days. Having 
no compulsory duties, no chapel bell to waken me at 
unseemly hours, no monitors to note my absence, I felt 
freer to act upon my own convictions and impulses than 
I had ever done before. Though much inclined to do 
so, I did not finish the course, or take a degree, but in 
the autumn pitched upon Detroit as my future home, 
and after a little preliminary skirmishing, entered the 
office of Walker & Eussell, to finish my studies and par- 
ticularly to acquaint myself with the local practice. 
In the following spring I was appointed a Commissioner 
under a " dedimus potestatum " to take the testimony 
of a large number of witnesses residing in a dozen dif- 
ferent counties in the State. As many of these were 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 19 

lawyers or court officials, I formed acquaintances which 
were afterwards of real value. Returning to Detroit, I 
was admitted to the Bar in July, 1860. Detroit at that 
time contained several lawyers of eminent ability, whose 
presence would have dignified any court in the country. 
Such men as Jacob M. Howard, subsequently United 
States Senator, Halmer H. Emmons, afterwards Cir- 
cuit Judge of the United States, Geo. V. N. Lothrop, 
Minister to Russia under the Cleveland administration, 
and Ashley Pond, one of the keenest legal intellects I 
ever met, were worthy of comparison with any with 
whom I subsequently came in contact in Washington. 

In the autumn I took a modest office which I shared 
with Bela Hubbard, a valued friend and eminent citizen, 
and devoted myself less to the practice of law, which 
was meagre enough, than to familiarising myself with 
the Michigan Reports, of which there were then only a 
dozen volumes. Upon the incoming of the Lincoln ad- 
ministration the following spring, I was appointed by 
Colonel Dickey, the new Marshall of the district and 
a friend of the family, his office deputy. This was out 
of the line of professional advancement, but I had no 
hesitation in accepting it, as it not only gave me an 
immediate income, but also brought me into connection 
with vessel men of all classes, who naturally gravitate 
toward the Marshal's office whenever any question arises 



20 MEMOIR OF HEXEY BILLINGS BROWN 

as to " tying up " a vessel to secure a claim. Not long 
thereafter I was appointed assistant to the District 
Attorney, Mr, Alfred Russell, an elegant and courtly 
gentleman, with whom my relations were of the pleas- 
antest description. I not only attended to a large 
criminal business arising out of the war, by examining 
witnesses before the committing magistrate, but also 
prepared all the indictments, attended the sessions of 
the grand jury, and tried them frequently in court, 
during the occasional prolonged absence of Mr. Russell. 
This was really the beginning of my professional ac- 
tivity, and by the expiration of the District Attorney's 
official term I had built up a practice, principally in the 
admiralty branch, which justified my taking an office 
to myself. 

I continued in practice with a growing success until 
July, 1868, when I was appointed by Governor Crapo 
to a temporary vacancy upon the bench of the Wayne 
Circuit Court, then constituted of a single judge. But 
my incumbency was of short duration. As a presiden- 
tial election was then impending, and Wayne County 
was strongly Democratic, I was decisively beaten at the 
November election, though I ran considerably ahead of 
my ticket. But short as my experience was, it gave me 
a taste for judicial life which had much to do in fixing 
my permanent career. Having been given by the peo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 21 

pie to understand they wanted no more of my services 
on the bench, I returned to practice and was soon after- 
wards invited to become a partner of John S. Newberry 
and Ashley Pond — virtually to take the place of Mr. 
Newberry, who was then the leading admiralty lawyer 
of the place, and also largely interested in manufac- 
turing — to the latter of which he desired to give his 
entire attention, I remained with the firm, and sub- 
sequently with Mr. Pond alone, for seven years, when 
upon the sudden death of Judge Longyear, I was ap- 
pointed by President Grant District Judge for the East- 
ern District of Michigan. I was glad to take refuge 
in the comparative repose of the bench, although it in- 
volved the loss of two-thirds of my professional income. 
Since I felt my health was giving way under the un- 
congenial strifes of the Bar, and the constant fear lest 
by some mistake of my own the interests of my clients 
might be sacrificed, I felt quite content to exchange a 
position where one's main ambition is to win, for one 
where one's sole ambition is to do justice. The differ- 
ence in the nervous strain involved gave me an incal- 
culable relief. For the first two years it was a struggle 
between life and death, but thanks to a good, constitu- 
tion, prudent living and plenty of horseback exercise, 
my natural vitality triumphed and for twenty-five years 
thereafter my health continued to improve. 



22 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Some of the pleasantest experiences of my district 
judgeship were connected with sessions of the circuit 
court held in other States, upon the assignment of 
Judge Emmons, who preferred to stay at home in De- 
troit, while I was only too glad of the opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with the laws and lawyers of 
neighbouring jurisdictions. The first winter after my 
appointment I was assigned to hold a term of the 
circuit court in Memphis, where I remained two 
months. Although it was then less than eleven years 
since the termination of the Civil War, and the pas- 
sions tJiat it had aroused were by no means extinct, my 
wife and I were received with a cordiality which not 
only disarmed all criticism, but captivated us by its 
apparent genuineness. Though I was conscious of the 
fact that the political sympathies of the people must 
have been with the South, no intimation of that kind 
was ever made to me. Indeed we found ourselves the 
favoured recipients of the most refined hospitality. 
Dinners and receptions were given with prodigality, 
and our rooms at the hotel were constantly thronged 
by callers. 

Learning that Jefferson Davis and his wife were then 
residents of Memphis, I expressed to my friend General 
Hume a wish to meet him. Occupying the position I 
did, I felt that I could not call upon him without ex- 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 23 

posing myself to unfriendly criticism at home, and as 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis made no first calls themselves, I 
did not see my way clear to an interview. General 
Hume, however, solved the problem by making his 
house a sort of neutral ground and inviting us all to 
dine with him. Of course we were only too glad to 
accept, and I am bound to say I never spent a more 
delightful evening. I found Mr. Davis a most courteous 
and agreeable gentleman of the best Southern type, 
without a suggestion of arrogance or hauteur. It was 
difficult for me to realise that ten years before he had 
been a prisoner of State, immured in one of the case- 
mates of Fort Munroe awaiting a trial for high treason 
as the recognised head of a great rebellion. I then 
appreciated for the first time that an honourable, con- 
scientious man, removed as far as possible from the crim- 
inal classes, may be guilty of treason — a most fiagi- 
tious crime when committed by an officer of the army 
or navy in time of war, but in civil life and in time of 
a general peace, often involving little more than a rad- 
ical difference of political opinion. As in Mr. Davis' 
case, his action led to a great revolution in which half 
the States took sides against the government, it would 
have been a grave mistake to apply the legal canons of 
interpretation and put him upon trial like an ordinary 
malefactor. 



34 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Mrs. Davis was a handsome woman of refined and ele- 
gant manners, with a suggestion of imperiousness which 
seemed to be borne out by her reputation in Memphis. 
Their daughter, Winnie, then a beautiful young girl of 
fifteen, recited to us for our entertainment, an accom- 
plishment much in vogue in the South, and carefully 
taught in their schools. 

The fifteen and a half years I passed as district 
judge, though characterised by no event of special im- 
portance, were full of pleasurable satisfaction and were 
not overburdened by work. Indeed I found that I could 
easily dispose of the business in nine months of the year, 
and that there was always an opportunity for a sum- 
mer's outing. There are doubtless higher offices, but I 
know of none in the gift of the government which con- 
tributes so much to making life worth the living as a 
district judgeship of the United States. My relations 
with the Bar were of the pleasantest description and 
were clouded by no event, and when the question of my 
promotion arose I seemed to have received practically 
the unanimous endorsement of the Bar and the Legisla- 
ture. 

At the time of my appointment Halmer H. Emmons 
of Detroit was filling the recently created office of cir- 
cuit judge. His was one of the greatest minds I ever 
came in contact with, and he ought by his talents to 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 25 

have been one of the leading men of the country, but 
unfortunately he was considered too erratic to be pop- 
ular as a politician. As counsel for the Grand Trunk 
Eailway he had become familiar with the English and 
Canadian courts and had conceived a great admiration 
for their methods of despatching business. He disposed 
of many cases upon the opening statements or " offers 
to prove" of counsel; and if he submitted the case to 
the jury at all, it was under such clear instructions that 
they found but little difficulty in reaching a verdict. 
He was intolerant of any want of preparation or of any 
inability of counsel to state in their own language the 
facts of the case, or the exact legal questions involved. 
Counsel who had been accustomed to trying cases in 
their own way, and consuming all the time they desired, 
were greatly surprised and shocked when confronted by 
a judge who insisted upon their trying them in Ms way, 
and consuming no more time than was necessary for the 
proper disposition of the case. He usually took sides 
with one counsel or the other very soon after the open- 
ing of the argument, which then took the form of a 
controversy between the Court and the Counsel against 
whom his intimation had been given. He was very 
patient in listening to counsel, but I noticed that he 
usually adhered to his original opinion, and left nothing 
to the counsel upon the other side but to stand by and 



26 MEMOIR OF HEN^RY BILLINGS BROWX 

listen to a judgment in his favour. It was natural that 
with his radical departure from, the accepted methods of 
trying cases he should at first have been unpopular with 
those who had been brought up under the old school of 
judges, but in a few years the superiority in his mode 
of dealing with cases became so manifest that he was 
rapidly winning his way to appreciation as a great judge 
when death overtook him in the very prime of his judi- 
cial career. In person he was tall, spare and of com- 
manding presence. No one could look into his keen 
black eyes, overhung by beetling brows, and observe his 
alertness and decisiveness of manner without being satis- 
fied that he was in the presence of no ordinary man. 

Judge Emmons was succeeded by John Baxter of Ten- 
nessee — a judge of a very different type. He was cer- 
tainly an able and upright man, absolutely fearless in 
the discharge of his duties, but sadly lacking in what is 
known as the judicial temperament. He was evidently 
endowed with great executive ability, and, with proper 
education, would have made a great general. He was 
thoroughly cool and self-possessed, very mild in voice 
and manner, but when he announced his determination 
no argument could possibly shake it. His will was ab- 
solutely inflexible, though his opinions were sometimes 
given in an almost inaudible tone. His was clearly the 
case of a hand of steel clad in a glove of velvet. He 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 27 

cared even less for authorities than Judge Emmons. 
They might be stumbling blocks, but they were never in- 
superable. If they were in his way, his thoughts, if not 
his words, were "So much the worse for the authori- 
ties." He formed offhand impressions and frequently 
decided upon the strength of them without even listen- 
ing to an argument. He differed from Judge Emmons 
in sometimes deciding cases without hearing the party 
against whom he was about to decide. 

He was unpopular as a judge and was thought to be 
intolerably arbitrary, but it must be said to his credit 
that he had an intuitive knowledge of the law, was 
usually right and was rarely reversed. My own rela- 
tions with him were pleasant, but with several of his 
colleagues they became much strained. His death was 
said to be owing to his wilfulness in disregarding the 
advice of his physician who had warned him against the 
course he insisted upon pursuing. 
'- He was in turn succeeded by Howell E. Jackson of 
Tennessee — an ideal judge. If he lacked the bril- 
liancy of Emmons, he was also free from his eccentrici- 
ties. He had Baxter's instinctive sense of justice, but 
was always ready to listen to argument. While like 
most men of alert minds and quick conceptions, he 
formed his impressions as soon as the case was stated, 
he was always ready to be convinced, and his patience 



28 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

was rarely exhausted. He was one of the very few 
judges I have known whom I never heard criticised. 
Indeed his character was so well rounded out that it is 
impossible to lay hold of any one characteristic and say 
that he was specially distinguished for that above all 
other men. If he were conspicuous for anything it was 
for the completeness of his intellectual equipment. -^ 

During his occasional visits to Detroit, he usually 
made his home at my house, and I found him the most 
delightful of guests. He had a fund of droll anecdotes 
at his disposal, which he drew upon for our amusement 
and told in his peculiar Southern accent. I gathered 
from what he said that he had political enemies in his 
own State, but he never spoke of them with rancour or 
bitterness. 

^ One day as we were returning from court, and just 
as we were turning into the house, he told me that he 
had been informed that Mr. Justice Matthews was fa- 
tally ill, and that in case of his death he proposed to go 
to "Washington, see President Harrison, a former col- 
league of his in the Senate, and persuade him to appoint 
me to fill the vacancy. As my aspirations had never 
mounted to the Supreme Bench, and I had never dreamed 
of it as a possibility, I was naturally surprised, espe- 
cially in view of the fact that the offer came frorti one 
who was my superior in rank and that my appointment 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 29 

involved a promotion over his head. It was, however, 
a characteristic exhibition of his own unselfishness. He 
made his promise good, went to Washington in my be- 
half, and ultimately obtained my appointment, altliough 
my classmate, Mr. Justice Brewer, was chosen to fill the 
first vacancy. My own appointment came a year later 
upon the death of Mr. Justice Miller, I may say in this 
connection that both Justice Brewer and myself de- 
clined to be considered competitors against each other, 
and that for the succeeding sixteen years our relations 
were intimate, and that no cloud ever arose between us. 
It only remains to add upon the occurrence of the next 
vacancy, by the death of Mr. Justice Lamar, I was in- 
strumental in inducing President Harrison to appoint 
Mr. Justice Jackson in his place. This was the cul- 
mination of a friendship which continued without inter- 
ruption until his death. ••" 

My appointment to the Supreme Bench necessitated 
my removal to "Washington and the severance of family 
and social relations which had been the growth of thirty 
years. While I had been much attached to Detroit and 
its people, there was much to compensate me in my new 
sphere of activity. If the duties of the new office were 
not so congenial to my taste as those of district judge, 
it was a position of far more dignity, was better paid 
and was infinitely more gratifying to one's ambition. 



30 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Besides, the social attraction of the capital of a great 
country cannot fail to be superior to those of a purely 
commercial city, however large and prosperous it may 
be. The constantly changing character of its popula- 
tion, many of whom are sent there for periods of from 
two to twelve years, to be replaced by others equally 
agreeable, and the increasing influx of new people, who 
have made their fortunes elsewhere and remove to 
Washington to enjoy their later years, is sufficient of 
itself to make it the social, as it has been for more than 
a century the political, centre of the nation. There is 
an additional attraction in the diplomatic corps, which 
contains representatives of the most refined society of 
all the leading countries of the world. 
. My colleagues upon the Supreme Bench were all men 
of distinction and ability in their several specialties. 
Chief Justice Fuller was specially happy in his executive 
duties and his assignments of cases to us for the prepara- 
tion of opinions constantly had in mind our previous 
experiences in particular branches of the law, the cir- 
cuits from which the cases arose, as well as any interest 
a justice may have taken in an individual case. Each 
member of the Court was given his share of constitu- 
tional cases. To Justices Field, Harlan, Lamar and 
Brewer were usually assigned the land cases, to Gray 
most of the commercial cases, to Bradley, Blatchford 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 31 

and myself the patent and admiralty cases, while those 
turning upon questions of practice were by immemorial 
custom disposed of by the Chief Justice. Mr. Justice 
Bradley was by common consent regarded as the most 
learned and acute lawyer; Justice Field a man of great 
determination and indomitable courage, though lacking 
the judicial temperament, as a master of forcible and 
elegant English; while Justice Gray expressed himself 
very clearly, usually in short opinions but occasionally 
in very long ones, for the preparation of which he sent 
for books from the most remote parts of the country. 
Though his manners were somewhat brusque, he was an 
excellent judge, fair minded in liis opinions and a kind 
hearted man. Mr. Justice Harlan was a strong Federal- 
ist, with a leaning toward the popular side of cases and 
a frequent dissenter from the more conservative opinions 
of his brethren, I have never known partisan con- 
siderations to enter into the dispositions of cases. By 
common consent politics were abjured when taking a seat 
upon the Supreme Bench. By reason of his previous ex- 
perience as Secretary of the Interior, Justice Lamar's 
assignments were chiefly confined to land cases. He 
had practised law but a few years, and that early in life, 
and always lamented his lack of special equipment for 
judicial labour. But he was a man of brilliant talents 
and one of the most genial and delightful companions I 



32 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

ever knew. Justice Brewer, who had been a classmate 
of mine in Yale College, shared the conservative views 
of his uncle, Justice Field, regarding the rights of prop- 
erty, but was by no means his inferior as a judge. "' 

On my seventieth birthday, and after a service of fif- 
teen years and a half (precisely the length of my service 
upon the District Bench), I tendered my resignation to 
President Roosevelt, to take effect at the end of the term. 
I took this action in pursuance of a resolution I had 
made thirty-one years before when first appointed to the 
Bench. I had always regarded the Act of Congress per- 
mitting a retirement upon a full salary as a most benefi- 
cent piece of legislation, and have only wondered that 
more judges have not availed themselves of it. I have 
noticed that while many, if not most, judges made the 
age of seventy, very few who remain upon the bench 
survive another decade. During that decade the work 
of the Supreme Court tells heavily upon the physique 
of its members, and sometimes incapacitates them before 
they are aware of it themselves. 

In addition to tliis I had always taken the ground 
that the country was entitled to the services of judges in 
the full possession of their faculties, and as my sight 
had already begun to fail, I took it as a gentle intima- 
tion that I ought to give place to another. 

In discussing with the President the appointment of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 33 

a successor, I mentioned the name of Mr. Taft, then 
Secretary of War, as one eminently fitted for the place 
both by education and experience, to which the Presi- 
dent replied that Taft was built of presidential timber. 
Hence I was not surprised when he afterwards became 
an avowed advocate of Mr. Taft's nomination. I then 
suggested the name of Secretary Knox, who I under- 
stood was offered but declined the appointment. Mr. 
Moody, then Attorney General, was appointed, but, 
much to the sorrow of his friends, became incapacitated 
after a short service and was retired by special Act. 

I left Washington soon after my resignation and spent 
a year in foreign travel. I was received with great cour- 
tesy by our own representatives abroad, and accumulated 
a fund of information which has been a never failing 
source of pleasure. 



ADDENDA 

By Charles A. Kent 

Mr. Brown's college life is fairly summed up in his 
autobiography. A letter from his classmate, the Hon. 
Chauncey M. Depew, to me, hereinafter quoted, adds to 
this. 

Mr. Brown's diaries and other memoranda show that 
he was careful and accurate in his accounts and his ex- 
penses. His father provided for him through college 
and for some time thereafter. He had enough for com- 
fort, but for no extravagances. He missed no good 
thing which he could afford. He was very fond of so- 
ciety, especially that of young ladies. He learned to 
dance and attended dancing parties. He learned to 
swim and to play billiards. Perhaps there was no col- 
lege or society recreation in which he was not interested. 

His standing as a student was not high at first, but it 
improved. He grew to be ambitious as a scholar, but he 
does not appear to have loved study for its own sake, 
nor was his standing ever of the highest. "^He went 
usually to the orthodox Congregational church of the 
college, sometimes to other churches. Neither in col- 

34 



ADDENDA 35 

lege nor afterwards was he deeply interested in religious 
matters. So far as he appears, his life, at least after 
his first two years of college, was free from vices which 
tempt many young men, -He heard many occasional 
lectures of distinguished men like Thackeray, Edward 
Everett, Ealph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, Theo- 
dore Parker, Starr King and others, and records his 
opinion of each. His diaries show no touch of egotism. 
He was elated or depressed at different times, but there 
is everywhere a sober valuation of his attainments and 
deficiencies. He had much ill health, though not often 
seriously sick. Under date of March 5, 1855, there are 
several pages containing a brief autobiography. In it 
he speaks of the death of a sister and brother, his mother 
and his grandfather. He says of his college life : " My 
desire at first was merely to keep in college, and in truth 
I hardly did that the first term. The second term I 
began to do a little better. The third term I got by 
myself and did better than ever. Still, I was ambitious 
of being only a good scholar." His mother died October 
10, 1853. On his return to college after her funeral he 
says : " I became reckless and behaved so foolishly as 
to ruin my college reputation for the next two years. 
In the meantime compositions were to be written. I 
thought it an impossibility to write, and accordingly got 
rid of them the best I could by skinning, etc. During 



36 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

all this term, however, my stand was steadily increasing. 
Second term. Sophomore year, I resolved to do better, 
broke away from the miserable crowd I had been with, 
worked hard at my compositions, competed for a prize 
and shared the first prize of my division with Packard. 
Of a sudden I became wonderfully ambitious. Had a 
philosophical stand the third term of Sophomore year." 
June 12, 1855, is this entry : " Great excitement 
throughout our class in consequence of Senior societies. 
Men that have cursed scroll and key since Freshman 
year, losing skull and bones, go there. I won't go there 
by any means. Oh, the duplicity of college life." Oc- 
tober 13, 1855, he writes : " Have not the moral cour- 
age to appear in public with my new beaver." 

December 10 he writes : " Made some good resolu- 
tions. Query, How long will they last ? " He occa- 
sionally sleeps over morning prayers. January 31, 1856, 
is this entry : " Employed myself in contemplating the 
delightful fact that I have some lessons to make up." 
March 2 he writes : " My romantic period is past. 
Went to prayers and class meeting the first time within 
a year." March 20 is the entry : " Selected for my 
Townsend subject, ' Public armaments as instruments 
used by despotisms to debase the people.' " April 23 he 
writes that he attended St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the 
morning mass. June 11 he is informed that he has won 



ADDENDA 37 

a Townsend and feels fine in consequence. June 22 he 
enters a statement of liis standing, which averages a 
little less than three on a standard of five as perfection. 
July 19 he joined ihe Phi Beta Kappa. He had much 
difficulty in selecting a subject for his commencement 
address. 

July 24 he feels disturbed regarding his commence- 
ment address. Thinks it does not do him justice. Half 
a mind not to speak. Writes : " My maiden dress coat 
arrived this evening from the best tailor in town." 

After graduating he was for some weeks undecided 
what to do next. August 20 he writes : " Shall I teach 
or go to South America next year? " September 12 he 
says : " What shall I do next year ? Most favour my 
entering a law office immediately, which I veto." Sep- 
tember 18 he says: " Commenced this day the study of 
the Spanish language, in anticipation of spending a 
winter in Cuba." 

October 9 he concluded to go to Europe on a sailing 
vessel, apparently because his uncle owned the ship and 
gave him his passage. 

The ship sailed October 24. The passage was pleas- 
ant and he was sick but one day. 

He landed at Liverpool, went from there to Warwick 
and Stratford, thence to Oxford and then to London. 
He spent several days there visiting the usual sights. 



38 MEMOIR OF HEXEY BILLINGS BROWN" 

Thence he went to Paris, where he stayed several weeks. 
There he took lessons in French, and made such pro- 
ficiency that soon afterwards he was able to read that 
language easily, though perhaps he could never speak 
it with much fluency. He attended lectures at the Sor- 
bonne. 

He makes this summary of the year 1856. " On the 
whole I decide it the most profitable year of my life and 
certainly the most pleasant. My Townsend was a suc- 
cess, my commencement effort a failure, my principal 
false move was in taking too much advice as to my course 
immediately on leaving college and hesitating so long 
before starting for Europe. I lost three valuable months 
in dallying when I should have been across the Atlantic, 
but I am fairly here now and bound to make the most 
of it. My Townsend established my position as a writer 
on an honourable basis, but my old hesitation at ex- 
tempore speaking still continues. Shall I ever conquer ? 
It is the greatest obstacle to success. With my stand as 
a scholar, considering my fearful blunders Freshman 
year, I am pretty well satisfied. I kept my oration, and 
I could not have done more without seriously injuring 
my other prospects. My progress in French does not 
suit me. I find extreme difficulty in understanding 
what is said, more than in saying what I wish myself. 
I have not money enough to employ a teacher regularly 



ADDENDA 39 

and am considerably nonplussed at my prospects as a 
linguist. Certainly the year could not have been spent 
more agreeably. While in college I had a splendid 
boarding place and room with the best society in the 
class. The winter term and spring vacation were espe- 
cially snug and jolly. My voyage across the Atlantic 
was not particularly pleasant, but my subsequent ex- 
periences have been exceedingly interesting. My failure 
at commencement was attributed to a fortnight of tooth- 
ache following presentation, long hesitation about a sub- 
ject and a final choice of an equivocal one, general dis- 
gust for labour after a Townsend and Biennial, and a 
knowledge that great things were expected and that 
many friends would be present." 

January 17, 1857, he says: "My progress in French 
is now pretty satisfactory and I am able to understand it 
when not spoken too fast." 

On the 10th he says: " I am left with two francs and 
am in momentary expectation of a washing bill larger 
than that. Vfhat am I to do ? " January 20 he says : 
" climax of ecstasy ! delightful inconceivable ! 
Learning that the European mail had arrived I went 
over to Livingston's and at last received my long wished 
for, long despaired of letter, and I am now the happy 
possessor of 1000 francs." 

From Paris he went through Italy and thence to Swit- 



40 MEMOIE OF HENKY BILLINGS BROWN 

zerland, Germany and England, everywhere enjoying 
life. 

At the end of the diary of 1857 he makes a summary 
of that year as follows: 

" The commencement of this eventful year found me 
in a precarious situation; the end finds me as snugly 
harboured as one could desire. The year has been both 
profitable and agreeable. My first difficulties in French 
gradually wore away, and I have now a good reading 
knowledge of the language and a passable speaking 
knowledge. German, though, was the decided hit. I 
never was better pleased with my progress in any branch. 
Though my vocabulary is limited, my pronunciation is 
good and the substinicture solid. Travelling gives a 
wonderful expansion to one's ideas. My ideas of geog- 
raphy seem to me now to have been singularly incorrect, 
but being on the spot is likely to fix the location suffi- 
ciently permanently. On the whole, I am well satisfied 
with the course I took, only regretting I could not have 
visited Spain." 

Mr. Brown's diary, while abroad, is written in such 
fine characters that it is almost impossible to read it 
without a microscope. If this was not the beginning, 
at least it must have contributed to his lifelong trouble 
with his eyes. 

The course of Mr. Brown's legal education is suffi- 



ADDENDA 41 

ciently sketched in his autobiography. In the year 1859 
he heard Wendell Phillips twice and was much im- 
pressed with his power as a speaker, but was shocked by 
some of his views. He thinks him a demagogue. 

During this year he suffered much from his eyes. 
November 8 he started for the West, going by way of 
New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburg. At the latter 
place he called on Judge Andrews, to whom he had a 
letter of introduction. The judge gave him two letters 
to Detroit, but no hopes of entering into business with 
him. From there he went to Marshall, where he had 
an uncle on his mother's side. He stayed in Marshall 
until December 6, when he went to Detroit. There he 
was quite homesick for a time. On December 19 he 
says : " How homesick I am. Seeking a decent protest 
to go East." He soon got pleasant friends in Detroit 
and was more cheerful. He joined a literary club and 
went into society a good deal. At the end of the year 
he makes the following review : 

Eeflections at the end of 1859 : " The last six months 
of the year have been greatly embittered by the failure 
of my eyes. I have been forced entirely to relinquish 
reading after sunset and thus am deprived of all oppor- 
tunity of cultivating literary tastes, to which I devoted 
my evenings the first half of the year and in which I 
made considerable progress. I attribute the disease 



43 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

either to the strong gas light I used in the Cambridge 
librar}', or to salve E. M. Brockway gave me to take the 
redness from my lids. The occasion, I am afraid, was 
my anxiety to succeed in that unfortunate prize affair 
in New Haven. My eyes, since the relapse I suffered 
at Gorham on November 28, by sitting two hours in 
front of a shining light, are slowly improving, though 
I fear the improvement is but temporary. Probably shall 
not be able to read much evenings until next winter, 
if tlien. God grant I may never be blind. Aside from 
this, the year has been well spent, although my depar- 
ture from New Haven was characterised by one or two 
unpleasant incidents. My career in Cambridge was a 
decided success. I gained all the honours I could com- 
pete for, and stood well in the esteem of my fellow- 
students. My spring and summer vacations were, on 
the whole, pleasantly spent. It is yet somewhat un- 
certain whether I shall remain permanently in Detroit 
or not, and it will depend mostly upon whether I 
get an opportunity of entering into partnership with 
an established lawyer or not. I like the place, am read- 
ing in the largest office and boarding at the best hotel. 
The people are extremely hospitable and receive me 
freely into their society. My prejudices are still in 
some respects in favour of the East." 

The diary of 1860 shows continued interest in society, 



ADDENDA 43 

and taking part as a Eepublican in politics. He at- 
tended lectures of eminent men and gives his criticism. 
On Sundays he usually attended church, but at many 
different places until he took a pew in the Fort Street 
Presbyterian. His eyes still trouble him very much. 
He delivered a Fourth of July oration at Marshall to 
his satisfaction and that of the audience. July 13 is 
the entry : " Have concluded to go East. Query. 
Shall I stay? I don't feel at home in Detroit." July 
25 he started for the East. August 25 he was in 
Providence and was there offered a seat in a lawyer's 
office, which he accepted August 28. August 29 he en- 
ters : " Have I got to return to Detroit? " August 30, 
he writes : " Have nearly made up my mind it is my 
destiny to return to Detroit. Would remain here were 
it not for a rule requiring students to study six months." 
September 20 he started back to Detroit. Thereafter 
he does not appear to have thought of change. October 
10 he says : " Hard up for cash, in short completely 
drained." October 22 he says : " Emphatically hard 
up for cash and creditors pressing." October 26 he 
writes : " My long expected remittance arrived. Pur- 
chased $142 worth of law books and paid a few debts. 
Took my first attorney's fee of $5.00. November 6, 
voted for Lincoln, but bolted congressmen and some in- 
ferior officers." Reflections at the end of 1860 : y 



44 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN 

" A great disgust which I conceived for Detroit at the 
beginning of the year, and which came near driving me 
to Providence last summer, has not entirely disappeared. 
The truth is, I am not more than half reconciled to the 
West, and were it not for the proximity of my uncle's 
family, I think it extremely doubtful if I remained here. 
I am sometimes half sorry I did not stay in Providence. 
My accidental seat in Walker & Eussell's office was a 
lucky hit in that it gave me Whispering Smith's deposi- 
tions, a job which rescued me from a tremendous finan- 
cial precipice and gave me several valuable acquaint- 
ances, one of whom, Miller of Grand Eapids, has given 
me nearly all the civil business I have had. My eyes 
(may the Lord in his mercy be thanked) have been 
strong enough since October to permit of my reading 
evenings by the light of a coal oil lamp with a porcelain 
shade, the only light soft enough for them to endure. 
The first nine months they were entirely useless after 
sundown so far as reading was concerned, and were a 
great source of annoyance and discouragement. As far 
as my business goes my situation is not peculiarly en- 
couraging. I have done but little because I could get 
but little to do, and it is not in my nature to drum busi- 
ness as most Western lawyers do, but a young lawyer 
must not expect much. I do not despair, I hoped to 
have had an opportunity of delivering a lecture this 



ADDENDA 45 

winter, but none has occurred as yet. The Young Men's 
Society here is a humbug. I am not entirely destitute 
of friends, I hope. 

" The situation of tlie country is dreadful and civil 
war appears almost inevitable. Anything but disunion; 
God help us." 

March 12, 1861, he writes: "Eyes feeling uncom- 
fortable again. Have I another year of blindness and 
misery? Oh, God, I hope not." March 14 : " But lit- 
tle to do now. General decay of business." 

April 10 : " Called on Colonel Dickey at Michigan 
Exchange at eve. Applied through him for the office 
of United States Deputy Marshal. Mizner competes 
with me, and will probably get it." 

April 11 : " Got the appointment and moved into 
new office in the Federal Building." 

April 14 is this entry : " Fall of Sumter. Begin- 
ning of a long war of which no man can see the end." 

Other entries show his interest in the war and devo- 
tion to the North. 

April 18 : He hears he has been appointed Assistant 
United States District Attorney and writes : " Oh, 
Lord, ain't it good." 

July 2 : " Received invitation to deliver Fourth of 
July oration at Flat Rock, and went vigorously to work 
patching up my last year's effort, adapting it to the 



46 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

times." July 4 : " Went down to Flat Rock to relieve 
myself of speech. Found that most of them knew noth- 
ing about a celebration. Spoke in church to fifty au- 
ditors. Was presented with $1.63 for my effort." 

September 3 : He joined a military company, called 
the Holt Guards, and thereafter drilled with them from 
time to time. 

On the last of the year he makes the entry : "' The 
past year has been one of universal prosperity. Its chief 
event — my appointment as Deputy Marshal and As- 
sistant United States District Attorney — was upon the 
whole, I think, a very fortunate one. While it has the 
effect of withdrawing me to a certain extent from the 
fellowship of the profession, and of making me less 
ardent in the pursuit of business than I should be, if 
I have nothing else to depend upon for my support, yet 
I think its tendency will be to introduce me into an ac- 
quaintance with the leading men of the State and throw 
in my way some professional business. 

" Indeed I have already had quite a number of ad- 
miralty cases (for which I have a particular partiality), 
brought to me through my connection with the mar- 
shal's office. It has also brought me one or two excel- 
lent clients. My professional business is much greater 
than it was a year ago, and long may it live and grow. 
My health is superb and socially everything is going on 



ADDENDA 47 

swimmingly, although I have not found the right one 
yet. 

" The country, my greatest source of anxiety at present, 
is in a dreadful state. We have entered upon a war to 
•which I can see no possible end, during the present ad- 
ministration. As I see its inevitable consequences in 
the loss of life and property, in the vast issues of paper 
money and consequent high prices, and depreciation of 
tlie currency, and in the breaking up of the whole social 
system, it absolutely makes me shudder. What its end 
will be no man can tell, but all can safely prophesy that 
it will work immense injury to both sections." 

1862 — January 4 — is the entry: "Commenced 
making up a most vexatious account for Washington. 
Moses, how I dread it." January 13: "Took part in 
Young Men's Society debate on Emancipation Ques- 
tion. Was obliged to advocate it. Oh ! " "■ 

January 25 he notes the purchase of " Alison's Eu- 
rope." 

In May of this year he appears to have had a love 
affair which was unsuccessful and made him unhappy 
for a time. 

May 30 he argued his first case in the Supreme Court 
of Michigan, May 31 he finished his argument and is 
beaten, and enters : " Verily there is little certainty in 
the law." June 7 and following he takes lessons in elo- 



48 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

cution of a well-known teacher — Professor Taverner. 

June 9 he began writing a Fourth of July oration, 
though he had no invitation to speak. July 4 he writes : 
" Spent A. M. practising my speech. Orated in p. m. at 
Michigan State Retreat grounds to an audience mostly 
Catholics," July 24 he writes : " Must I go into the 
army ? " During this month he went East to commence- 
ment at New Haven, thence to his father's, thence to New 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, thence 
to Winchester and Martinsburgh, seeing something of 
war matters, thence home, arriving at Detroit August 
30. September 1 he writes : " Civil life is getting 
stale. Shall I go into the army? The only profession 
in this country is grim visaged war." 

September 12 he writes : " Was wof ully disap- 
pointed to-day in not being elected lieutenant of my 
ward. Thwarted by malignity of an enemy whom I 
never harmed. Revenge ! " 

September 18 : " Attended ward caucus this eve, and 
being only Yankee there, was overcome with honours. 
Delegate to county convention, president of meeting, 
chairman of ward committee ! ! ! " October 11 : " Com- 
menced studying German once more." November 6 : 
He went hunting. He often this fall attended Repub- 
lican political meetings. November 21 : He notes his 
first acquaintance with the Pitts family, and on the 24th 



ADDENDA 49 

tliat he attended a Gottschalk concert with Caroline 
Pitts, " a lovely damsel," who became his wife. There 
are many subsequent entries this year as to his courtship 
with Miss Pitts. 

At the end of 1863 he makes this entry : " This has 
been a prosperous year for me. My connection with the 
Marshal's office, I think, is proving an advantage to me 
in making me acquainted with the leading men of the 
State and introducing me gradually, though slowly, 
into business. After the 1st of July I ceased to act 
as the regular office deputy of the Marshal, which place 
Charley Dickey stepped into. I still hold my seat in 
the office, retaining a very pleasant sinecure out of it. 
My Eastern collections latterly have diminished, owing 
to the business put into my hands by the Graydons being 
completed. My eyes, thank God, trouble me no more. 

" Twice I thought very seriously of participating in 
the terrible Civil War which has raged the entire year, 
but circumstances which I now regard as fortunate pre- 
vented my entering the service. In my position as As- 
sistant District Attorney, for the last six months, merely 
a nominal office, I was superseded in April by Mr. Rus- 
sell, now District Attorney, appointing his brother 
George. Such is the ingratitude of republics. The 
close of the year finds me again filling my old place as 
Assistant, Mr. Russell having gone to Washington and 



50 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

George having too much to do. Last winter I confined 
myself much to my room evenings. This winter I go 
more into society, partly as a matter of policy. 

" Am not married yet; I believe, though, subject to my 
old distractions. My experiences this year have been 
more than usually touching. Ah! I may not even 
commit to this paper my emotions, disappointment 

in the bewitching . Weather has been wet and 

warm and not a day of skating yet. My proximity to 
Marshal and the Don (a cousin) is delightful, partic- 
ularly as I have a pass on the Central. Everything now 
wears the couleur de rose. I dare not believe things will 
always remain thus. . . . Admiralty business quite a 
source of revenue last year, very poor this summer. 
Times were too good, vessels paid too well. My other 
law business gradually increases. Oh, for more cheek to 
fight for it ! The condition of the country could hardly 
be worse, and we are on the verge of a general dissolu- 
tion. Even politicians are almost silent. We are hold- 
ing our breath awaiting what may come. President 
weak, cabinet divided and paralysed. Generals in con- 
flict, armies defeated, we all hope for some great change. 
Pray God it may result in our permanent good. All 
hope of extinguishing the rebellion must be laid aside. 
The people have done more than nobly though. Of gen- 
eral literature I have time to read but little now. I have 



ADDENDA 51 

recommenced tJie study of German, though, and mean 
to master the language sooner or later. Health excel- 
lent." 

1863 : There are many entries showing his attention 
to Miss Pitts, and his engagement some time in July. 
He regrets greatly the division of Michigan into the 
Eastern and Western Federal Courts, apparently because 
of its effect on his business as Assistant District At- 
torney. February 14 : " Attended meetings of Union 
Club at eve and was appointed delegate to the National 
Convention at Cincinnati." He delivered a Fourth of 
July oration at Plymouth to an audience apparently at- 
tentive, though not enthusiastic. He notes with Joy the 
great victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburgh. There is 
this entry at the end of the year : " The past year has 
been to me one of unlimited prosperity, although owing 
to the general and unlimited falling off of collection busi- 
ness, my professional emoluments have perhaps been 
equalled, if not exceeded by that of the previous year, 
yet I think there has been a slow though steady increase 
in other classes of cases, keeping pace with a correspond- 
ing growth of influence and acquaintances. Indeed I 
am closing the year with a fair little docket of admiralty 
cases, and that too in mid-winter. If a bankrupt law is 
passed, I shall make extraordinary exertion to reach a 
new class of cases growing out of it. I do not expect 



52 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

collection business to revive much until the close of the 
war and hard times come on, when the lawyers will 
begin to thrive again. How sad it is to think that our 
prosperity generally grows fat upon the miseries of the 
rest of the world. Criminal business I have not looked 
at during the past year. My reputation is not suffi- 
ciently established to have it come to me, and I consider 
a search for it as too degrading for any respectable law- 
yer. My official duties have been increased by my re- 
appointment as Assistant District Attorney, about the 
first of October last. This has reduced my leisure hours 
to almost nothing and left hardly time to read the daily 
newspapers, much less enter upon any extensive literary 
undertaking. I have been endeavouring for the past six 
months to find time to write a political paper, but thus 
far have made very little progress. My annual Fourth 
of July oration is all I can accomplish. During the 
summer, however, I rose half an hour before breakfast 
and read a few lines of Cicero, a practice I intend to 
adhere to in the future. I am making another spas- 
modic effort to learn German, and have commenced a 
course of lessons under a lady teacher. I really intend 
to acquire that language, although it may take years to 
do it. My health could not be better than it has been 
the past year, and I do not now recall a single sick day. 
The beginning of the New Year finds me a perfectly 



ADDENDA 53 

healthy man and not exempt from draft. Perhaps the 
most important episode of the year is my engagement to 
Carry Pitts. I see in her now almost all that I could 
hope for or desire in a wife, and I trust during the com- 
ing year to throw the white veil over her shoulders. 
Well, I believe on the whole I am a pretty lucky fellow, 
and I cannot see that I have anything to complain 
about." 

July 13, 1864, Mr. Brown was married to Caroline 
Pitts. Her father was of an old and distinguished New 
England family. He was a graduate of Harvard Col- 
lege. He was an intellectual, cultivated and capable 
gentleman. He studied and practised law for a time. 
Afterwards he was engaged in the lumber business and 
became a man of wealth. The family had a high social 
position. There were three daughters besides Mrs. 
Brown and one son. Mrs. Brown was fine looking, well 
educated, intellectual, and sympathetic with all her hus- 
band's ambitions. The marriage was a very happy one. 
There were no children. She suffered much from ill 
health. After his marriage his society was largely with 
her friends and relations, but their acquaintance ex- 
tended to the most cultured and wealthy people of the 
city. 

The happy couple had a wedding tour down the St. 
Lawrence, Montreal and Quebec, and visiting old friends 



54 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN" 

and relatives in New England. On their return they 
boarded first at the Russell House and afterwards with 
Mr. Pitts, changing apparently because of the enormous 
price demanded by the former. The last of August he 
bought a substitute for the war and paid him $850. 

September 20 he writes of the excitement produced 
by the rebel raid on Lake Erie. On the 39th he at- 
tended the draft proceedings, though he had no personal 
interest, because he had furnished a substitute. Novem- 
ber 28 and December 16 and 17 he criticises in the 
strongest language the conduct of the judge before whom 
he was practising. December 14 he writes : " Tried a 

weak case against and convicted him. Tried a 

very strong case of smuggling in p. m. and jury stood 
nine for acquittal and three for conviction. Such are 
our boasted privileges of trial by jury." 

At the end of 1864 he writes : " The great over- 
shadowing event of the year 1864 ia undoubtedly matri- 
mony, and for this the year becomes memorable in my 
private annals. I don't know that a man with a good 
wife has any reason to grumble that he has lost his at- 
traction among the fair sex. Business continues with 
increasing prosperity, although I have not that firm hold 
in the profession that enables me to look lightly upon 
the possible loss of official emoluments. My income, 
though larger by nearly $300.00 than ever before, was, 



ADDENDA 55 

for the first time, insufficient to meet my expenses; this, 
however, is attributed not to extravagance or the luxury 
of a wife, but to the necessity of procuring a substitute. 
This was a loss of $675, for wliich I had nothing to show. 
My situation now is peculiarly pleasant, a good home, a 
devoted wife, a prosperous business, greenbacks enough; 
in short, have I not more reasons to be grateful than any 
man in the State? My position as Assistant District 
Attorney has thrown me into some important cases, 
where I seem to have acquitted myself to the satisfaction 
of my friends at least. In short, I am all right, barring 
a slight shuddering at the thought of my health." 

1865 : February 13 and for some weeks thereafter 
he suffered much pain from what he terms a " local 
trouble " which prevented him from walking, but did 
not keep him from his business. April 3 he writes: 
" Oh, Lord, that I should live to see this day — Rich- 
mond taken — end of the war. Great jubilee, stores and 
offices close. Wandered around the city till late at night 
like one demented. Nothing but ringing of bells, hoist- 
ing of flags, enthusiasm and cheers." 

June 23 he accepted an invitation to deliver a Fourth 
of July address at St. John's. September 28 he writes 
of going to see his farm. October 7 he writes : " Called 
on Dr. Noyes to have my eyes attended to. They are 
troubling me much again." October 23 he writes : " At- 



56 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN 

tended Bar meeting at Biddle House. To my astonish- 
ment was called upon the second one to respond to a 
regular toast. Made a bad bull of it, spoiled my even- 
ing." November 1 he notes that he had a bad job in 
collecting a note from the Chief Justice of the State. 
November 28 he notes an attendance on a new literary 
club where the eight-hour movement was talked over. 

December 22 and 24 he was writing an article on the 
Alabama claims to be read at a club. December 31 he 
notes : " Sat up pursuant to custom to see the New 
Year." 

1866, January 8, he writes: " Eetained in an elegant 
murder case, where a gentleman chopped his sister in 
pieces with an axe." 

February 8 he writes : " General Sherman in town 
to-day. Got an introduction to him by a masterly piece 
of strategy." February 23 : " Commenced writing an 
essay on Jeff Davis for the Club." Sunday, March 18, 
he writes : " Was forced to go down to law library a 
few minutes much against my will." April 9 : " In- 
dications now that I shall build this summer." May 10 : 
After a defeat in a criminal case, when he was defeated 
by the jury, he writes : " Monstrous poor luck I have 
had in trying cases. Guess I am not much of a law- 
yer." May 16 he writes: " Elegant murder case comes 
down from Port Huron." July 17 to August 14 he was 



ADDENDA 57 

absent from Detroit, going to New Haven and Watch 
Hill. September 31 he writes thus: "Put not your 
trust in princes, alas for the uncertainty of human glory. 
The axe has fallen, and Dickey's head has tumbled into 
the basket. Notice of Colonel Parkhurst's appointment 
received this a. m. ' Sic transit gloria Mundi.' " On 
the 22nd he attended a Republican ward caucus and on 
the 29th he changes his office because of the new mar- 
shal. 

October 15 he writes : " Got the first bid on my house 
to-day, and was dreadfully discouraged to find it 
$6822.00, exclusive of the lumber. Horrible! Lost all 
heart for the thing." Still, October 26 he enters into a 
contract for building the house. It was built on Jeffer- 
son Avenue next to that of his wife's parents. It was of 
wood. He resided there until much later. This house 
was moved and a far more expensive one was built of 
brick on the same ground, where he lived until his re- 
moval to Washington. November 6, election day, he 
spent two hours at the polls. November 7 he writes: 
" Glorious victory all around. Democracy utterly pros- 
trate. Thank heaven for that." December 21 and 22 
he was so sick as to call a doctor. After his marriage he 
went with his wife's family to the church of Dr. Duf- 
field, an old-school Presbyterian clergyman, able but very 
orthodox. Sunday, December 30, is the entry : " Heard 



58 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN 

Dr. Duffield for the last time this winter. Gave us a 
solid hour and a half of bigotry and nonsense. Can't 
stand it any longer. Am. going to commence the New 
Year with the good resolution not to go again." 

1867 : January 1 he made New Year's calls as usual 
with two friends. He spent the day and achieved the 
number of eighty. January 20 he writes : " Eyes not 
strong enough to use much by candlelight." February 
2 he writes : " Tried a justice case this morning and to 
jny thorough disgust and chagrin got beaten, although I 
was for plaintiff and had a perfectly good case." 

February 15 and 16 he was sick enough to send for 
a doctor. March 20 : " Attended a ward caucus and 
got elected a delegate to the county convention. 21st: 
Spent most of the day in Republican county convention 
to nominate delegates to the Congressional convention. 
As chairman of the committee had the virtual designa- 
tion of delegates myself." 

March 23 he writes : " Absolutely nothing to do. 
Getting to feel disheartened at lack of business." 27th : 
He was nominated Vice-President of the Young Men's 
Society and declined the nomination. April 7 and for 
some days thereafter he suffered from a painful boil. 
26th: "Admiralty cases decided against me. Mad but 
can't help it." Several days in April he notes that he 
is working on his garden — business dull. May 10 : 



ADDENDA 59 

" Very busy in oflBce all day." June 26 he notices the 
sudden death of Judge Witherell and the resignation of 
the Bar. He worked to secure the appointment of C. 
I. Walker as Witherell's successor. July 11 : " Argued 
my first case before Judge Walker this morning. Ah, 
how different from what we have been accustomed to. 
The golden age is approaching. But one more death is 
needed to bring it on." July 9 Mr. Pitts is taken seri- 
ously sick. July 1-i : " Did not go to church. Sunday 
hangs heavily unless a fellow goes to church in the morn- 
ing." August 3 : " Was requested to run for alder- 
man, but declined." Sunday, August 25, he enters: 
" Did not go out at all. Carry wishing me to stay with 
her. Felt guilty though." August 29 : " Business 
driving. See lots ahead." August 31 : " Alarming 
sign of failing of my eyes. Must I give it up ? " Other 
subsequent entries show a continuance of trouble with 
his eyes. September 10 he writes : " Have little to do 
in office. Took possession of our new house after ten, 
and slept in our front chamber at last. Presented with 
a beautiful set of furniture and plate, with everything 
to make us happy; but Carry's health. Did my first 
marketing." September 20 : Because of some act of 
the Federal Judge he writes : " God, what a tyrant we 
have to rule over us ! " October 10 : " Charles Sum- 
ner called on the Pitts. I seized the opportunity to see 



60 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

him." October 10 : He heard an " elegant " lecture 
from Charles Sumner and says : " He is not a very ac- 
curate speaker, but is a man of truly noble presence and 
magnificent bearing." October 19: "Attended Re- 
publican caucus. Made a speech and elected delegate." 
October 24 : " Attended Bar supper. Resolved not to 
be caught as I was last year. Prepared myself and was 
not called on." November 20 : " Overburdened with 
work, scratched away until 10 p. m." 22nd : " Work 
getting dreadfully behind hand." 

1868, January 1 : " Made seventy-eight calls." 3rd : 
" Suffered a humiliating defeat in a Justice court to- 
day, caused by my own negligence. Felt too chagrined 
to enjoy a family tea party at the Pitts." March 7 : 
" Tendered my resignation as Assistant United States 
District Attorney, to take effect on the first of May." 
March 10 : " Attended Republican caucus. Elected 
president and delegate to county convention." 12th : 
" Spoke afterward at county convention. Appointed 
delegate to State convention. In April Judge Walker 
announced his intention of resigning the circuit judge- 
ship; the salary of judge was then but $1500 per annum. 
Judge Walker took the place, expecting the salary to be 
raised. It was not, and he resigned." 

Sunday, April 26 : " Did not go to church on account 
of alarming attack of Mr. Pitts. Started, but was called 



ADDENDA 61 

back. Grew worse until two, when death struggle com- 
menced and ceased not until twelve, when he died." 
• Mrs. Brown, as one of the heirs of her father, inherited 
what was then a large fortune, and she, with the other 
heirs, became partners in a lumber business. Mr. Pitts 
was but fifty-eight. The Browns appear to have become 
independent of his law business, and to this must be at- 
tributed his subsequent pursuit of office. May 27 : He 
attended the convention which nominated General 
Grant. May 28 : " Spent good part of day preparing 
speech for a Bepublican rally, but my heart, as usual, 
failed me at the last moment, and though called on I 
declined." June 25 : He was appointed Judge of the 
Wayne Circuit by the Governor in place of Judge 
Walker, who had resigned. July 2 : He took his seat 
on the Bench and soon after he went East to Saratoga 
and elsewhere. • While East a doctor whom he consulted 
" communicated the disastrous intelligence that my be- 
loved wife must go into the hospital in the fall. Had a 
good cry all around." July 24 : " Got home and at- 
tended to his judicial duties." Sunday, July 19 : 
" Sorry to say I wrote considerably on opinions." 
24th: "The servant ladies both notified me of 

their intention to leave. Let 'em go, d n 'em ! " 

September 13 : " Sorry to say I violated the Sabbath 
by writing opinions." September 14: He was nom- 



63 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN 

inated for circuit judge by the Republicans. Septem- 
ber 21 : He notes that his wife reduced to writing an 
opinion he had formed. "October 1 : " Spent the after- 
noon in a meeting of the county committee looking over 
prospects of election." October 30 : " Sick and dis- 
gusted with political business. Had to lock the doors 
of my office to keep out political beggars." He made 
considerable effort to get elected — printing slips. On 
election day, November 3, he drove around to every poll 
in the city. " Kept slips in the hands of all my friends," 
November 4 : " Woke up to find myself whipped, as I 
expected. Busied myself during the day figuring up 
majorities which I estimated at about three hundred and 
fifty. Ran five hundred and twenty ahead in the city." 
Judge Brown was defeated by a candidate far inferior, 
simply because the Democrats were in a majority in this 
county. He continued to be judge until November 21, 
and soon after became a partner in the firm of New- 
berry, Pond & Brown. - This was a most important step 
in his professional progress, and soon gave him business 
of more importance than he had before had. Still for 
some time thereafter he continued to try justice and 
criminal cases. 

• 1869, February 10: He attended a Republican con- 
vention for the nomination of regents as a delegate, 
and was appointed chairman of the committee on resolu- 



ADDENDA 63 

tions. March 1 : He writes : " Learn that Eussell is 
a candidate for the district judgeship, which laj^s me 
low. Felt blue." March 2: "Thirty-third birthday, 
no grey hairs, but growing bald." 31st: He delivered 
an address to the graduating law class at Ann Arbor and 
dined at Judge Cooley's. ' April 3 : " Friend Larned is 
backing me for the district judgeship." This refers to 
the time when Judge Wilkins was about to retire. 9th : 
" Argued and submitted Foster case in Superior Court 
this morning. Ought to win, but my usual luck will 
probably follow me." May 29 : " Invited to deliver a 
short address at the Medical Commencement June 8." 
31st: "Very much pressed with business. Commenc- 
ing new suits all the time." June 18 : " Have formed 
the habit of taking an hour's nap after dinner and like 
it hugely." 

July 1 : He notes that he won a verdict of not guilty 
in a criminal case, but adds : " The old cuss is guilty, I 
believe." 

July 5 : He went East with a large family party. 
He reached home July 11 and says : " Concluded the 
great pleasure of travelling was in getting home." 

The 20th he makes this observation : " Passed an 
anxious, miserable day. Divided the human race into 
two classes — those who are born to speculate and those 
who are not. I am not. Few who labour with their 



64 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN" 

brains are." 21st: "Won disgracefully a little case 
in the justice's court. The justice of the peace's partial- 
ity so marked I was ashamed of him and myself." 24th : 
" Closed a bargain for a Jefferson Avenue lot for 
$9000.00. Now for a struggle to raise the money. For 
the first time in my life am obliged to borrow, accursed 
word." 28th : " Making very little money." August 
11: "No money, awful hard up." 27th: "Made 
blue hearing of Harvard's defeat in Oxford boat race." 
October 4 : " Three decisions in my favour in Wayne 
Circuit to-day. Patchin [his successful opponent] not 
such a bad judge after all." November 9 : " Bad news 
from Ionia; case went against me, cuss the judge." 
November 28, Thanksgiving Day : " Dined gorgeously 
at the Pitts and got very mellow on champagne." 30th : 
" Defended some boys for robbery and got whaled. 
Judge Wilkins sent 'em up cruelly for thirteen years. 
I trust this may be his last official act in which I may be 
interested." December 9 : " Spent most of p. m. at a 
Bar meeting to celebrate Judge Wilkins' retirement." 
Judge Wilkins was succeeded by Judge Longyear. 1870, 
■January 11 : He goes to Toledo to try a case and says: 
" Find Waite [afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court] the nearest my beau ideal of a lawyer I ever 
saw." 28th : " Very blue day ; lots of bills and no 
money; heaps of regrets and few prospects." 



ADDENDA 65 

February 9 : " Felt blue and full of disappoint- 
ments." May 11 : He notes the delivery of his open- 
ing lecture on Medical Jurisprudence. May 23 and 34 
he notes that he is very blue. Sunday, June 12 he says : 
" Attended church and became sort of disaffected. 
Think I'll not go any more." He did not adhere to his 
resolution. September 18 : Sunday, he attended St. 
Paul's in a. m. and Christ's Church in the eve. October 
24, he writes : " Blockhead Patchin decided a case 
against me this morning." 

October 30, Sunday : " Spent pleasant evening with 
Carry reading poetry." November 1 : " Made a polit- 
ical speech to a ward meeting, not a happy effort." 

November 17 : " Eesolved that under no circum- 
stances will I ever employ counsel in a case involving 
less than $1000.00 or call one in the midst of a case." 

November 29 : " Spent the entire morning trying the 
last small justice case I shall ever dabble with." No- 
vember 30 : " Came down after dinner to a woman's 
suffrage convention and heard some viragoes talk. Re- 
turned disgusted." December 16 : " Went to hear the 
divine Neilson. She charges high, but she ravishes. 
The most adorable singing ever heard." January 4, 
1871 : " Was sick with a terrible headache and went to 
bed at four o'clock." January 14 : " Great financial 
disaster of N. P. & B." May 13 : " Attended a citizens' 



66 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

meeting to see about opening the new city hall. Rus- 
sell chosen orator, somewhat to my chagrin." 22nd : 
"Gave fourth lecture to medix." 31st: "Bar supper. 
Spoke among others." June 8 : "A black day, blue 
black day of mortifications." 19th : " Last lecture at 
the medical school, perhaps for aye." 23rd : " Went 
as one of a committee to select a minister. Selected and 
got Rev. Geo. D. Baker and was pleased with him." 
1872, January 2 : " Park meeting this evening a sell. 
Got off a little speech and was interrupted before finish- 
ing. Much labour lost. Distrust prepared speeches. 
Better extempore." 15th: "Attended first political 
meeting of the campaign at postmaster's room." 

February 2 : " Terrific headache. Worst of the sea- 
son. Too sick to argue motion in the United States 
Court." He was subject to many headaches at this time. 
29th: While at Buffalo, New York, on law business, 
he was sued, much to his annoyance, but on what grounds 
does not appear. 

April 4 : " For the first time in many years begin to 
feel that I would like more law business than I have got." 
6th : " Elected President of tenth ward Republican 
Club." June 3 : " Commenced at $25.00 per week to 
Carry, she to pay all provision bills, including women 
servants' wages, taking care of yard and other odd jobs 
about the house." 



ADDENDA 67 

May 14 : " Find my name on the slate for Congress." ^ 
July 10: "Attended meeting of Eepublican Club and 
made a short and very unsatisfactory speech. Some- 
thing must be done or I must give up extempore speak- 
ing." At this time he became a candidate for the Ee- 
publican nomination for Congress. Moses W. Field was 
his successful opponent. Mr. Brown made an active 
canvass. August 2 he writes : " Drove down into ninth 
ward to ' fix things ' for caucus to-night. Walked up 
after tea and settled my last night's bills, a good round 
sum too. Expensive business, carrying the tenth." 
August 6 : " Made final preparations for the conven- 
tion to-morrow. Called canvass of friends. Drove out 
to Greenfield after tea to see a delegate. I can truly 
say I have done nothing and left nothing undone which 
I regret, and yet I care not a fig for the nomination." 

August 7, he writes, the day of his defeat in his race 
for the Eepublican nomination for Congress : " Went 
in and got scooped out, very little to my sorrow, a victim 
of bad advice. Mustered but twenty-eight votes out of 
ninety ; a good compliment, but not enough to elect. Ee- 
sumed the practice of law at four o'clock, a wiser, but 
not a sadder, man." September 2 : " Find I must give 
up coffee and ought to give up smoking." 

November 1 : " Satisfied myself that Field would be 
elected and began to grieve that I did not get the nom- 



68 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

ination." November 7 : " Sorry I was not nominated." 

November 16 : " Defended chap for receiving stolen 
goods and got beaten, as I deserved." November 19 : 
" Very busy, lots of work, but poor pay." December 3 : 
" To-day the firm of Newberry, Pond & Brown ceases to 
exist, and to-morrow the firm of Pond & Brown com- 
mences business." 

At the end of 1872 there is this entry : " The year 
1872, full of public calamities, disasters by fires, floods 
and moving accidents, has not been particularly eventful 
to me personally. Barring my unfortunate Congres- 
sional candidature, the current of my life ran smoothly. 
I have made large additions to my law library. My 
business becomes steadily more profitable, and I think I 
can safely say I am not failing in influence. One re- 
solve I make at the close of the year — to devote one 
month of every year hereafter to recreation. I mean 
that nothing shall interfere with that." 

1873, January 9 : " Encountered an awful excori- 
ating in the Sunnyside case. Judge intimated he should 
beat me so strongly that 'tother side said nothing." 
January 17: "Getting up an article on judicial sal- 
aries." 

February 23 : He notes that he began work on a 
volume of reports. This became " Brown's Admiralty 
Reports," which is well known among admiralty lawyers. 



ADDENDA 69 

March 11: "Went down to Common Council to log 
roll a little." January 21 : " Engaged passage on 
steamer Republic for Liverpool." March 31 : " Great 
excitement through the town on the judicial question. 
Bar held a meeting in the evening and nominated Pond." 
April 1 : " Poor Pond in a peck of trouble, almost in 
tears. Begged hard to get out of it." 2nd : " Pond 
and his friends beg me to let my name be used before the 
committee. I finally consented, although I know it will 
be useless." 3rd : " Convention met to-day and com- 
mittee did not nominate me, but Jennison." The nom- 
ination was for the Superior Court. Cochrane was nom- 
inated by the Democrats and elected April 28; Mr. 
Brown was beaten in a case against him personally in 
Buffalo, New York, and a verdict rendered of $1616.00. 
He was much disgusted. 

In June, Mr. Brown sailed for Europe and was gone 
about two months. He was in Edinburgh, London, 
Paris and Brussels, and at the latter place bought $2000 
worth of pictures. August 28 : On return voyage he 
writes : " Fell violently in love with a girl from Og- 
densburgh." In October he went to Washington to try 
his first case in the Supreme Court and writes this : 
" Found Judge Parker at the Arlington, who moved my 
admission to the Supreme Court. Swell Court, big dig- 
nity." That day and the next he called on most of the 



70 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

justices. November 20 and 21 he enters that he was 
"blue, blue, blue." November 28 he enters: "Over- 
burdened with work." December 17 : " Annual meet- 
ing and sociable of First Protestant Society. Of course 
put on a committee. Vowed almost I'd never go to an- 
other public meeting." December 31 he enters: " The 
year just closed has not been remarkably prosperous. 
My income has not been as great and a number of dis- 
agreeable things have happened. Its chief pleasurable 
feature is my trip to Europe. Sickness in Pond's family 
made serious inroads on business and diminished largely 
our receipts. My own share has been as large as usual. 
On the whole, glad it's gone." 

1874, January 1 : He made many New Year calls 
as usual. 2nd : " Turned over a new leaf and resolved 
among other things to make clients pay." 9th : " Office 
crowded with clients, more than I can possibly attend 
to." 

13th: Has a telegram announcing success in a case 
in Supreme Court. March 9: Has another telegram 
from Washington announcing his defeat in an attempt 
to mandamus Judge Emmons. 21st: He attended to a 
"little matter at police court." April 28: He took 
preliminary steps for foundation of Social Science As- 
sociation. May 14 : " Spent p. m. at police court prose- 
cuting a chap for assault and battery. Convicted him." 



ADDENDA 71 

18th : " Persuaded to go to New York to-morrow as 
delegate to Social Science Association." 22nd : " Made 
a little speech in Social Science Association. Eead a 
paper of Brockway's on Prison Reform." 

June 15 : " Argued case of City of Buffalo on appeal 
before Swayne, and beaten. A judicial outrage ; I never 
want to see liim again." 

October 5 : " Pestered by applicants to go to the 
Legislature. Hesitated somewhat, but finally made up 
my mind to refuse." 

October 19 : "A very annoying day. Lost Eosen- 
field case under very exasperating circumstances. Over- 
whelmed with business." 24th : " Expect to be called 
to Washington." November 1 : "I desire here to note 
that the month of October was the most beautiful I have 
ever seen in any season or in any climate." 

November 8 : " Started to Washington to argue case." 
November 12 : " Went immediately to work upon an- 
other Washington brief." December 27 : " Much 
pleased with ' Lewis' History of Germany/ a new work 
just out." 

1875, January 1: "Made about fifty calls." 6th: 
"Dreadfully overrun with work." 11th: "Re-elected 
director of a street railway company." (Fort Street.) 
January 12 : " Attended stockholders' meeting of 
American Plate Glass Co. The last year's business in 



72 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

the Pitts' lumber business shows a loss of $50,000.00." 
24th : " Drank my last drop of sparkling wine for many 
a long day. Am satisfied there is headache in it, and 
I renounce it." 25th: " Better satisfied than ever of 
the effects of champagne — a tearing headache all day." 
29th: "Smitten with an exquisite ballad — Douglas, 
Douglas, tender and true." 

February 8 and 9 : He had a chill. February 10 : 
He sent for a doctor. He writes : " First day's ab- 
sence from office for sickness since I have been at the 
Bar." He did not return to his office until the 17th. 

March 12 he writes : " Judge Longyear dead. Oh, 
God, how horrible ! Attended Bar meeting in p. m. 
Completely paralysed, not a stroke of work done. Al- 
ready plenty of talk of his successor. Offers of friend- 
ship sent and freely made." 

Judge Longyear died very suddenly in the prime of 
life, and his death had a most marked effect on Mr. 
Brown's future. He at once entered on an active can- 
vass for the position of United States District Judge. I 
remember well when he came to my office, and after ask- 
ing if I wished the office and receiving a negative an- 
swer, asked me to support him. This I earnestly did. 
I do not remember that there were other candidates. 
The salary of a district judge was then but $3500.00 per 



ADDENDA 73 

annum, an amount too small to attract competent law- 
yers, who were dependent on their earnings. 

March 15 : " Went to funeral services at Judge Long- 
year's house. Collecting letters, etc., preparatory to 
going to "Washington." March 16 : " Everything in 
readiness. Took Maynard (then United States District 
Attorney) and left hy evening train, hoping strong and 
for me tolerably confident." He reached Washington 
on the 18th, and found his name had already been sent 
to the Senate. His confii-mation followed on the 19th. 
He took his seat on the Bench soon, and thereafter his 
diaries were discontinued. 

At the time Mr. Brown became District Judge, he had, 
in conjunction with Mr. Pond, a large and growing 
practice. He was a successful lawyer, but I do not 
think that either he or his best friends thought him 
more deserving of judicial honours than some others. 
His great distinction was that he had a great ambition 
to be a judge, and was able to accept the position with 
the small salary then paid. 

The daily social life of Justice Brown after he went 
on the District Bench probably did not change much. I 
have no record to mark its incidents. 

In 1884 he removed the wooden house in which he 
had been living to another part of Jefferson Avenue, and 



74 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

built on the old site a new and fine brick house which is 
still standing and is No. 712. 

One event, well authenticated, shows his courage. 
Soon after they moved into the brick house on Jefferson 
Avenue, Mr. and Mrs. Brown were awakened by a 
masked man standing by Mrs. Brown with a pistol 
pointed at Mr. Brown and telling them to keep quiet 
while he proceeded to look for valuables. There chanced 
to be a pistol in the commode loaded and left there by a 
young naval officer who had been a visitor. Irritated 
by the burglar's seizure of a watch. Brown jumped from 
the bed and took the pistol and fired at the burglar. 
The fire was returned, but neither one hit, but the bur- 
glar speedily fled. 

In 1876 Judge Brown published " Brown's Admiralty 
Reports," which is still in use and is regarded by ad- 
miralty lawyers practising on the Great Lakes as an ex- 
cellent treatise. It contains but one of his opinions. 
The admiralty business greatly increased in Detroit 
after Justice Brown went on the Bench. It is said that 
it was second only to that of New York. He was very 
prompt in his decisions and was seldom reversed. He 
displayed a practical acquaintance with details of navi- 
gation and methods of business. His Court not only 
had the business which naturally belonged in Detroit, 
but also absorbed considerable from other ports. Cases 



ADDENDA 75 

were frequently brought from other places by consent in 
order to have the trial before him. 

Judge Brown was popular in all the other branches of 
the law. He presided with dignity and despatch in jury 
trials. He charged a Jury in language they could under- 
stand. If they disobeyed his directions he did not hesi- 
tate to overrule their verdict. I do not think Detroit 
has had a better trial judge. Perhaps his greatest fault 
was an ambition to understand a case and express his 
opinion too early in the argument. But against this 
he had no pride of opinion. He would listen to an 
argument against his decisions with the greatest pa- 
tience, and was ready to reverse himself if convinced that 
he had erred. In this respect I never knew his superior 
and seldom his equal. Not all of Justice Brown's 
opinions as District Judge were published. Some prior 
to 1880 are in the Federal cases. From 1880 many were 
published in the Federal Reporter. They are all writ- 
ten in good English, They exliibit a careful study of 
the authorities, and a judicial mind. He was not so 
pressed with business but that he could give full con- 
sideration in every case. He had the power of deciding 
after sufficient study. He could make up his mind and 
adhere to his determination unless influenced by new 
considerations. He was very conservative, adJiering ■ 
always to the law where he found it settled. He had no 



76 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN" 

ambition to attract attention by new or extravagant 
views. He was a patient listener, where a law}'er had 
anything to say, but was impatient of mere declamation. 
Though he never hesitated to express his views frankly, 
he was very affable to all who had business in court, and 
indeed to all with whom he came in contact. 

Justice Brown's appointment to the Supreme Bench 
was not obtained without considerable effort on his part. 
One quite formidable opponent was Alfred Eussell, the 
former United States District Attorney, when Brown 
was his assistant, who had the warm support of one of 
the then United States senators from Michigan, Mr. 
McMillan, and of many lawyers in Detroit and in the 
East. I have heard that one considerable ground for 
Justice Brown's appointment was his reputation as an 
admiralty judge and the lack in the Supreme Court of 
men specially familiar with this branch of the law. In 
seeking a position on the Supreme Bench, as in other 
matters. Justice Brown did not hesitate to use all hon- 
ourable means to attain the object of his ambition. 

While a Justice of the Supreme Court he delivered 
some hundreds of opinions. It is impossible to review 
them in any permissible space. Nor would such a re- 
view be of value. Each case stands on its own merits, 
and to review it would require one to study all the argu- 
ments on both sides, to do what hundreds, perhaps thou- 



ADDENDA 77 

sands, of lawyers have done at large expense to their 
clients, and my opinion, if given after exhaustive study, 
would be of no value. Justice Brown, as a member of 
the Supreme Court, gave many opinions in admiralty 
cases. He thought when he went on that Bench that 
his knowledge of admiralty law was considerable. But 
he has told me that his fellow judges often disagreed 
with him in this branch of the law. With his usual 
modesty, he said that the Court might be right when 
they rejected his opinions. Discussions of the law are 
usually of little interest save to lawyers, and to very few 
of them, save where they are seeking to win a case. 
There is no doubt that Justice Brown was thought by 
his associates on the Supreme Bench a good judge, fair- 
minded, open to conviction, willing to listen to argu- 
ment, willing to be convinced if he thought he was 
wrong, affable, having no jealousy of his associates. 

One of his associates. Justice Day, writes me thus: 
"It is hard to comply with your request to portray 
Judge Brown's weak-nesses as well as his strength. In 
other words, to paint him as Cromwell would have his 
portrait, wrinkles and all. Judge Brown had very few 
wrinkles in his character. As a man you were better 
acquainted with him than I, and well knew his general 
characteristics. It always seemed to me that Judge 
Brown had an admirable judicial style, neither too dry 



78 MEMOIE OF HENEY BILLINGS BEOWN 

nor too florid, and clearly expressing the thought he in- 
tended to convey. 

" In the inner work of the Court, Judge Brown was 
one of the most agreeable of colleagues, and absolutely 
free from all jealousy and bitterness. He always came 
to tlie consultation room acquainted with the cases from 
careful attention to the arguments and full considera- 
tion of the records and briefs. He took a personal part 
in the discussions at the conference table at all times, 
earnest in the statement of his views, but at the same 
time good tempered and courteous in their expression. 
He was particularly helpful in the Court in patent and 
admiralty cases, in both of which branches of the law 
he had experience before coming to Washington. As you 
know, he wrote a number of leading cases in admiralty 
and patent law. Until his eyes became very poor to- 
wards the last of his service here, he did his full share 
in the work of the Court and in the writing of opinions, 
and always participated fully in the consultation of the 
Court, even after his eyesight was giving him a great 
deal of trouble. . . . There are some people so unusual 
and peculiar that one thinks of such characteristics upon 
the mention of their names. None such occur to me in 
connection with Judge Brown. He was a capital judge 
and a genial and lovable companion, free from littleness, 
rejoicing in the good fortune of his brethren, and at all 



ADDENDA 79 

times upholding the honour and dignity of the Court." 
I have never talked with any lawyer on the Bench or 
in practice familiar with Justice Brown's opinions, who 
did not tliink him a good judge. Was he a great judge, 
superior to his associates on the Supreme Bench? I 
doubt it. I do not think he thought himself such. He 
had a deservedly high opinion of the position of a justice 
of that Court, and felicitated himself that he had at- 
tained it. He spoke to me with the utmost freedom 
about his associates, always in a kindly manner and gen- 
erally with praise. He once said to me that, excepting 
about a dozen of Chief Justice Marshall's opinions, the 
Court was then doing as good work as did Marshall. I 
doubted the statement and said that in almost all of 
the great Chief Justice's opinions, even the least im- 
portant, there was a power of analysis, a direct state- 
ment of the points at issue, and a clear announcement of 
principles which exceeded the best opinions now given. 
Justice Brown's opinions will be quoted, as are all those 
of respected judges, by every lawyer who thinks he can 
aid his case thereby. Whether they will be quoted by 
men who study the development of the law, as important 
landmarks in such development, I cannot say. 

Soon after Justice Brown removed to Washington he 
built a new and fine residence, No. 1720 Sixteenth 
Street, and resided there until his death. 



80 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

While District Judge he was made an LL.D. by the 
University of Michigan, where for a time he lectured on 
Admiralty Law. The same honour was afterward con- 
ferred by his Alma Mater, Yale. 

During the Court vacations he travelled a good deal, 
mainly in Europe. He notes that he went to Europe 
fourteen times, ten of them while he was on the Supreme 
Bench. As a traveller he was interested in everything 
tourists usually wish to see, and especially in becoming 
acquainted with distinguished men. 

In 1901, while abroad and in Italy, Mrs. Brown died. 
A letter, dated August 2, 1901, gives his reflections on 
this event. 

He was married again in 1904 to Mrs. Josephine 
Tyler, who was the widow of his cousin, Frederick Hal- 
sey Tyler, a young naval officer who died early. After 
his death, Mrs. Tyler lived much with the Browns, and 
both were very fond of her. The marriage was a very 
fortunate one. They lived with the same harmony which 
had characterised Justice Brown's first marriage. After 
his marriage Mrs. Brown never separated from her hus- 
band. Being much younger and in better health, she 
waited assiduously on every want. As his eyes failed 
she read to him. The portrait of the first Mrs. Brown 
was the most conspicuous object in the family parlour. 



ADDENDA 81 

Justice Brown once told me that he never had a quarrel 
with either of his wives. 

The circumstances which caused Justice Brown's re- 
tirement at the age of seventy are given in his auto- 
biography and his letter to me. 

On his retirement, the Bar of the Supreme Court 
resident in the District of Columbia gave him a public 
dinner at which were present the President and Vice- 
President of the United States, many judges of the Su- 
preme Court, cabinet officers and others of public dis- 
tinction. President Roosevelt made a complimentary 
speech, to which Justice Brown responded in a carefully 
prepared and able address. He evidently enjoyed the 
occasion very much. The addresses and letters of re- 
gret were published in a pamphlet beautifully framed 
and bound. 

After that he travelled a good deal, going to Italy, 
Austria, Turkey, Greece, England and France in 1906, 
and to Italy, Germany, Holland and England in 1910. 
When not abroad he went to some part of New England 
in the summer, and towards the last. South in the late 
winter and spring. While in Washington he enter- 
tained constantly, and of course was often entertained 
by others. His fondness for society never ceased. He 
had all his professional life been in the habit of making 



82 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BEOWN 

public addresses when called on by some public society. 
He continued the practice after his retirement. I find 
among his papers a list of his addresses from 1856 to 
1912 numbering thirty-six, most of which have been 
printed in some magazine or pamphlet or newspaper. 
They all appear instructive to any one interested in the 
subject discussed. 

This list does not include the Fourth of July orations 
which he delivered in his early career in Michigan. 
Justice Brown was all his life a reader of many good 
books. He continued the practice after his retirement, 
and when his eyes failed was read to by his wife. I have 
a list in his own hand writing of the books he read and 
proposed to read. I have also a catalogue of his library 
of general books. His library was small. It was quite 
miscellaneous. He had no fads or specialties. Outside 
of his law books, I do not think him a great reader. 
■ Even in law, I have the impression that he read chiefly 
to discharge his duty as an advocate or judge, rather 
than from the love of law as a science. Some of Justice 
Brown's characteristics are these: He had an ambition 
to do almost everything those about Mm were doing, 
and to do everything in the best possible way. He had 
a great love of distinction, an interest in all kinds of 
general knowledge, in history and in science. He was 
greatly interested in political life, and in public men. 



ADDENDA 83 

He was a Eepublican, yet without bigotry. His mind 
was very active, interested in most everything not re- 
quiring expert knowledge. He had good abilities in 
any subject to which he applied himself, but perhaps no 
extraordinary capacity in any line. He was absolutely 
sincere in the expression of every thought, though some- 
times hasty. A marked quality was his love of society. 
Justice Day says in the letter to me : " Judge Brown 
was, as you know, a sociable man and enjoyed life at 
the capital, which gave him an opportunity to meet in- 
teresting and agreeable people here. He always care- 
fully discharged what he regarded as the social obliga- 
tions of his position, and his home was one of the most 
attractive in Washington." 

Chauncey M. Depew, Mr. Brown's classmate in col- 
lege, writes me since his death : " I remember him 
while as a student, in fact almost better than any other 
member of the class. He had a most engaging person- 
ality which won him universal friendship, both among 
his classmates and with the faculty. He was an excel- 
lent student, but in no sense a grind. While not an 
athlete, he took the keenest interest in the few sports of 
that period. His most attractive qualities were on the 
social side. For three years he roomed across the hall 
from me in the old North Middle, and therefore I saw 
him very frequently. In his association with his in- 



84 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

timates there was a feminine quality which led to his 
being called Henrietta, though there never was a more 
robust, courageous and decided man in meeting the 
problems of life, whether as a student or afterwards 
when out in the world. The Justice had a grim hu- 
mour, and I can recall an instance of its exercise. A 
classmate of ours was always getting into money diffi- 
culties and quarrelling on that subject with some mem- 
ber of the class, generally with the one from whom he 
had received loans and expected more. Brown had sev- 
eral times contributed, and when he received notice from 
one of our classmates of this man's death and that 
money was required to pay his hotel bill and funeral ex- 
penses, the Justice wrote back : ' To the object of 
wliich you speak I gladly contribute, but before sending 
a check I wish to receive a burial certificate to be sure 
that he is dead.' At all class meetings coming in de- 
cennial year the Justice was a valuable addition. The 
majority of our class were country clergymen of very 
limited salaries, and the meetings were apt to be sombre 
and depressive. Brown, however, was always buoyant, 
cheerful and reminiscent only on the cheerful things in 
our college life and the good things in his experience 
thereafter. In the intimacies of the class banquet he 
would give incidents happening in the great court, of 
which he was both a member and an ornament, and also 



ADDENDA 85 

characteristics of his colleagues, never unkind, which it 
is a pity could not have been preserved, 

" I enjoyed intensely the association during my two 
terms in the senate with my two classmates, who were 
members of the Supreme Court, Justice Brown and 
Justice Brewer. The camaraderie between them was 
most delightful, and also with them. Brown had been 
a member for a great many years of the Washington 
Monument Association. The monument was completed 
years ago, but every year the Justice had a delightful 
reunion at his home at which official and social Wash- 
ington was invited to meet the commissioners." 

Justice Brown loved children and young people and 
attracted them to him. He was fond of the society of 
intelligent women. He never failed to notice a pretty 
woman whom he met. 

In his morals, at least after he came to Detroit, he 
seems to have been without reproach. If he ever sowed 
any wild oats, it was during the first years of his college 
life. He was careful about money matters, keeping full 
accounts. He enjoyed saving and making investments, 
even to the last. I do not think he ever saved money 
by rejecting any rational enjoyment, or denying any 
charity which' impressed him as a duty. He enjoyed art, 
but with what intelligence I cannot say. He loved 
music and used to sing hymns to his own enjoyment. 



86 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

I should not say that he had a religious nature or was 
ever much interested in theological questions. His 
mother was a religious woman, and in youth he went 
with his parents to an orthodox Congregational church. 
His father disliked the orthodoxy of his time and the 
son followed in his footsteps. 

While in Detroit Mr. Brown before his marriage 
usually attended church on Sundays, but at a variety of 
houses of worship. After his marriage he went with 
his wife to the Presbyterian church, then having for its 
pastor the Reverend Duffield, one of the straitest of 
old school theologians. Mr. Brown was often displeased 
with his sermons. Later ministers of that church he 
liked better. After his removal to Washington he was 
at least a casual church attendant. He never expressed 
any antagonism to Christianity generally, but was quite 
tolerant of all sects and of Roman Catholics. He was 
more of an agnostic than an opponent of religion. He 
does not seem to have had any pronounced views as to 
the nature of the Great First Cause or of a future life. 
He took no great interest in such questions. Brought 
face to face with death by several severe heart attacks, 
he contemplated it without fear or much hope. 

Justice Brown counted himself a fortunate man. I 
have known no one who achieved more completely the 
objects of his ambition. 



ADDENDA 87 

In the beginning of his will, made in 1910, he says: 
" Grateful for a life of almost uninterrupted happiness 
and for the golden mean of neither poverty nor riches." 
Though sometimes very blue, as his diary shows, he had 
on the whole a buoyant temperament which made him 
look on the bright side. But he had many troubles. 
His first wife was a great invalid, and her death was a 
crushing sorrow. He suffered most of his life from dis- 
tressing headaches. Trouble with his eyes began very 
early. Some years before he died, he lost the sight of 
one eye, and the vision of the other was greatly impaired. 
He began to have trouble with his heart in 1896, and 
thereafter many attacks of this disease, some of them 
very dangerous. Under the head of palpitations, he 
made a record of these attacks, their causes and dura- 
tion, even to the last one beginning August 19 at 2.30 
p. M. The number recorded is more than fifty. He 
died at the Hotel Gramatane, New York, on September 
4, 1913, about noon, without suffering. During this 
last sickness of about two weeks, though realising per- 
fectly his condition, he was bright and cheerful and very 
patient. He knew every one up to midnight of the 3rd. 
That day he thanked his doctor and nurse and bade 
them good-bye. 

He is buried by the side of his first wife in Elmwood 
Cemetery, Detroit. His funeral was from the house he 



88 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BEOWN 

first built in Detroit — now the residence of Messrs, 
George B. and Daniel W. Green, cousins of his first 
wife. Justice Brown's life should be an encouragement 
to young lawyers. It shows how a man without perhaps 
extraordinary abilities may attain and honour the high- 
est Judicial position by industry, by good character, 
pleasant manners and some aid from fortune. 



CORRESPONDENCE 

Washington, D. C. 

May 9, 1899. 
Dear Brother Kent: 

I have read with great interest your admirable ad- 
dress upon Judge Cooley. 

I am a great admirer of Judge Cooley and considered 
him upon the whole as the brightest legal luminary the 
State of Michigan has produced. His talks upon Con- 
stitutional Limitations is one of the half dozen of the 
best legal works which this country has produced. He 
and Judge Dillon were easily the leading juridical 
writers of our generation, though neither of them at- 
tained great eminence as practising lawyers. 

But Judge Cooley was guilty of one grave mistake: 
He overworked his intellect grossly; gave himself no 
leisure or relaxation, and at our age his career was prac- 
tically ended. None lamented this more than himself, 
but it was too late to remedy it. I heard him speak to 
his students once upon this mistake, which he alluded to 
as the great error of his life. 

89 



90 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

I have laid away your address as a model of its kind. 

Very truly yours, 

H. B. Brown. 

Detroit, August 2, 1901. 
My deak Kent: 

I found your kind and sympathetic letter awaiting 
me on my arrival at Detroit. 

While Mrs. Brown's health was such as to lead her 
physicians to advise me to take her abroad, I can now 
see that it was a great mistake, though I doubt whether 
it shortened her life materially, as her disease was such 
as must ultimately and inevitably result in her death; 
and her long invalidism rendered it less a surprise and 
shock that it would have been had she been taken away 
in perfect health. At the same time, her very suffer- 
ings appealed so strongly to my sympathies that it seems 
rather to have increased than lessened my grief at her 
loss. Her death puts an end to nearly forty years of 
the most unalloyed marital bliss that was ever accorded 
to man; and, as you say, life will never be to me again 
what it has been in the past. 

It seems to me that it will be impossible for me to 
return to Washington and to our home there without 
her presence. I can only console myself with the 
thought that I exhausted every resource known to science 



CORRESPONDENCE 91 

and medical skill to effect her recovery; but it was in 
vain. Indeed, her health has been such for the past 
ten years that I never dared to calculate upon her living 
from one month to another. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, of whom I have been 
hearing some very pleasant things of late, I am as ever. 
Your old and sincere friend, 

H. B. Brown. 

Washington, D. C. 

February 27, 1903. 
Dear Brother Kent : 

Accept my thanks for a copy of your excellent article 
upon Law and Justice. 

I think there is a tendency on the part of all appellate 
courts, — and certainly our court here is not free from 
it, — to find the justice of the case, and if possible to 
reconcile the law with it. Of course, if the law be plain, 
we are bound to enforce it for the sake of uniformity, 
though it may work a hardship in a particular case. 
There is also a danger, to which you allude on page 349, 
that while many of the facts are before us, all are not. 
Indeed it is very difficult to say in a common law case, 
they are sufficient to enable us to decide the case upon 
any strained interpretation of the law, though it is dif- 
ferent in equity cases which come up on the pleadings 



92 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN 

and testimony. WMle we should never forget the 
maxim that " Hard cases make bad law," still if we are 
satisfied we have all the facts before us, it is proper we 
should consider the equities of the case in applying the 
law. 

In some criminal cases against negroes, coming up 
from the Southern States, we have adhered to the tech- 
nicalities of the law so strictly that I fear injustice has 
been done to the defendant. We have one such case 
before us now. It has not yet been decided or even 
voted upon, but if I think of it, I will send you a copy 
of the opinion. I know nothing more ineradicable than 
racial antipathy, except, perhaps, national antipathy. 
My experience has taught me that the natural position of 
two nations toward each other is one of hostility, to which 
there are very few exceptions. 

In further illustration of what you say, I find that in 
determining subordinate questions, as for instance 
whether a particular action against an officer of the 
Government is an action against the Government or not, 
or whether a bill in equity will lie instead of an action 
at law, we are apt to be guided a good deal by the fact 
whether upon its merits we should reverse or affirm. I 
have often had occasion to notice that. ,/ 

I am much grieved to learn of the accident to Pond, 
which I fear will disable him for life. Pond proves to 



CORRESPONDENCE 93 

be much older than I thought, and I imagine that it will 
be better for him to retire altogether, and not attempt 
any further work. 

I understand, too, that Meddaugh has had some very 
unpleasant premonitions of trouble, though I should 
think a good long vacation would do a good deal for 
him. 

These are all sad tidings, as they lead to unpleasant 
suggestions with regard to ourselves. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, I am, 

Very truly yours, 

H. B. Brown. 

Washington, D.C, 

December 7, 1903. 
My dear Kent: 

Thank you for your kind and sympathetic letter. 
The breakdown came without premonition, except a 
very slight one to which I inadvertently gave no atten- 
tion. I much fear I shall lose my sight completely, but 
I am taking encouragement from the fact that good work 
has been done by blind men, and that some distinguished 
judges have been forced to rely upon the sight of others 
to prepare their opinions. Of course, it is a terrible 
affliction, but if I can avoid a nervous collapse for the 
next sixty or ninety days I hope I may succeed in recon- 



94 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

ciling myself to the situation, and perhaps take some 
further pleasure out of life. Of course, I would resign 
if I could do so and draw my pay ; but after nearly thirty 
years' service upon the Bench I do not feel called upon 
to do so when I am within a little over two years of 
completing my term. 

I heard from Mrs. Meddaugh the other day with re- 
gard to her husband's condition, which I fear is about 
as bad as mine. My general health has never been 
better than it has been this fall, but of course that may 
go with a fatal disease of the eye. 

Very truly yours, 
H. B. Brown, 
per F. E. C. 

Washington, D. C, 

February 20, 1908. 
Dear Brother Kent: 

Your interesting letter broke a long silence, — so long, 
indeed, that I should not dare even to guess when we 
last exchanged letters. The truth is, my group of 
friends in Detroit is thinning out so rapidly that I am 
always glad to hear from one of them. I am beginning 
to feel almost a stranger there. 

I am glad you are pleased with the banquet pamphlet. 
It was really a superb affair, and made the evening the 



CORRESPONDENCE 95 

happiest of my life. Indeed, I was almost paralysed 
with the splendour of the table as I entered the room. 
It was all so much beyond my anticipation. 

I do not think we shall disagree with regard to the 
subject of judicial legislation. Where the law has not 
yet been construed any interpretation adopted by the 
Supreme Court must be in the nature of legislation, as 
it must be determined not only by the language of the 
law, but by the circumstances of the times and the neces- 
sity of the case. But I am firmly opposed to judicial 
legislation where the law has been settled by a series of 
adjudications, and for that reason dissented from the 
opinion of the Court in the Income Tax and the Had- 
dock divorce cases. 

My general health has never been better, though I 
have lost the sight of one eye entirely and partially that 
of the other. I never have enjoyed life more, and I 
think the stories that are often heard about men col- 
lapsing when they leave the Bench is all nonsense. Of 
the four men of our Court who lost their minds, all of 
them lost them while they were still upon the Bench, 
while the four who left the Bench in sound condition, 
not one of them showed symptoms of mental weakness 
until their deaths. There are now three competent to 
retire, but no one will do so. Brother Brewer always 
declared that he would leave the Bench at seventy, but 



96 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

he pretends now that he is afraid that he will lose his 
mind if he does so. But I think there is a much better 
reason than that for his remaining on the Bench. No 
one of them likes to take a back seat. Besides that, the 
wives cut an important figure, and, of course, they are 
always opposed to it. I think their fears are ground- 
less, but I do not like to express to them my opinion 
upon the subject of retirement. 

I may say that time does not hang heavily on my 
hands; that I have not been busier for fifteen years, 
though, of course, I do not work hard. A magazine I 
send you to-day will show you how I spend my morn- 
ings; my afternoons take care of themselves. The sub- 
ject of the article is one that has received the attention 
of the Courts in a good many cases, but not of the law 
writers. I have endeavoured to treat automobiles fairly, 
but if you should read between the lines that I hate 
them, I should not quarrel with you. If the question 
were left to me, I think I should vote that a comfort- 
able old age is the happiest period of one's life. 

Yes, I have understood that Quinby is in failing 
health through feebleness of the heart. This is the 
weak link in my chain of vital armour, and I should not 
be surprised at anything. Of Quinby I have always 
had a high opinion. 

I notice your comments upon the course of the Presi- 



CORRESPONDENCE 97 

dent, and agree with you, at least partially. I think he 
has lost popularity during the past year among the bet- 
ter classes by liis impetuous temper, his intolerance of 
criticism, and needless quarrels and his seemingly un- 
controllable fondness for letter-writing and getting into 
print. He has too little respect for the opinions of 
others, and his popularity has had the effect of making 
him tliink that he is infallible. But with all this, he 
will go on record as the first president who has dared to 
attack corruption in high places, corporate abuses of 
various kinds,, and frauds in obtaining possession of 
public lands. He is full of pluck and energy, and ab- 
solutely without fear. I think his letter to Admiral 
Bronson was a mistake, and that his last message, though 
abounding in good suggestions, indulged too much in 
sermonising and defences of assaults upon his adminis- 
tration. That he had better have left to his friends. 
While the very rich hate him beyond expression, the 
great mass of the people are with him, and I still con- 
sider him, with all his weaknesses, one of the most val- 
uable presidents we have ever had. I think he is largely 
the cause of the present financial stringency, in which I 
myself have lost several thousand dollars, but I do not 
regard it at all as an unmitigated evil. I think it will 
lead, if to nothing else, to an improvement in the man- 
agement of corporations and to an improved tone in our 



98 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BEOWN 

business life. From having been ahnost an extreme 
conservative all my life, I fear that I am getting to be 
something of a radical in my old age. 

I am glad to hear that Mrs. Kent is well. Please give 
her my kind regards. 

I sincerely hope that Taft will be nominated and 
elected. He is a splendid fellow, very popular, and 
worthy of his popularity. Of course, I take no part in 
politics. 

Very truly your attached friend, 

H. B. BR0V7N. 

Washington, D. C, 

March 26, 1908. 
My dear Kent: 

Have just received your letter and in reply would 
say that if we cannot welcome you here, we shall be very 
glad to meet you in Charlestown the week of April 6. 
I am a delegate from Connecticut to a triennial meeting 
of the Society of the Cincinnati to be held in Charles- 
town, April 8, 9 and 10. 

We expect to reach there Tuesday, the 7th, and put 
up at the St. John Hotel, where the secretary has prom- 
ised to engage rooms for us. If you can meet us there, 
I would recommend your writing for rooms, as there 
will be a good many people there stopping on their way 



CORRESPONDENCE 99 

north. The convention will be in session three days, 
and there is plenty thereabouts to amuse one for that 
time. 

It looks now as if Taft would be nominated, but I 
have grave doubts about his election, though some of 
Bryan's recent utterances have shaken the little faith I 
had in Mm. 

Very truly yours, 

H. B. Brown. 

The recent railroad rate regulation has received a 
stunning blow from the Supreme Court. 

Essex County, N. Y., 

August 10, 1908. 
My dear Kent: 

I have been waiting for a good chance to tell you that 
I have already acted upon your intimation and written 
a biographical sketch of myself up to the time I went 
upon the Federal Bench. It is more befitting that my 
doings since t?iat time should be written by another than 
myself ; — thus distinguishing between my private life 
and that which by courtesy may be termed public. It 
is written in the first person, but may be readily turned 
into the third person by the memorialist. I have asked 
my wife to send it to you, if you survive me — if not, 
then to my executor, who will be instructed to pay all 



100 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

expenses of publication. It is a simple affair, but will 
be of assistance to any one who may feel sufficient in- 
terest to write a brief memorial. I am not ambitious 
for a regular biography. 

By the way, some one (perhaps you) told me you were 
writing or had written a biographical sketch of Lothrop. 
I hope you will send me a copy, as I was a great admirer 
of his. 

I have Just read your criticism of Brown's edition of 
" Austin's Theory of Law," and while I am not suffi- 
ciently acquainted with Austin to act as judge, I quite 
agree with you in your defence of Mr. Carter's address 
upon judge-made law. In declaring the law where 
there are no precedents, they necessarily make it. I 
had occasion to allude to this subject in my address at 
the Bar dinner. 

I was also much interested in your article upon Legal 
Ethics, concerning which it seems to me there are two 
standards, (1) as between the lawyer and his client, 
where the utmost frankness and fidelity are required, 
and (2) as between counsel and the Court and opposite 
counsel, where everyihing is permitted that does not 
involve trickery or an attempt to deceive. 

I am quite pleased with Taft's prospects. Nothing 
but the financial situation and the ugly fight that For- 
aker may make in Ohio can defeat him. Bryan seems 



COEEESPONDENCE 101 

to have no fixed principles and has become a political 
bore. The only proposition he ever really stood for was 
the silver standard, which every one now admits was a 
mistake, a delusion and a snare. 

I don't wonder the betting is all in favour of Taft. 
I never really myself for a moment doubted the sin- 
cerity of Eoosevelt's original withdrawal, and am glad 
that he adhered to it, as I fear he would have been 
beaten. 

We are visiting the Adirondacks for a few days. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, believe me. 

Sincerely yours, 

H. B. Brown. 

Always address me at Washington. 

Washington, D. C, 

May 28, '09. 
My dear Kent: 

I have just resurrected your last letters of September 
15 and October 29, 1908, which I ought to have ac- 
knowledged long ago, but laid aside for a more con- 
venient season which has just arrived. Since then much 
has taken place — mostly of an agreeable character. 

Eoosevelt, who spent the last two years of his incum- 
bency in pulling down the great reputation he made 
during the first six years, has disappeared in the wilds 



102 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

of Africa, and the whole souled and generous Taft reigns 
in his stead. At the last the papers spoke quite kindly 
of Roosevelt, who will long be remembered for the great 
good he did, while his eccentricities will gradually be 
forgotten. I still consider him one of our greatest 
presidents. 

Taft has made a fine start and bids fair to become 
very popular. I consider him an ideal man for the 
presidency, but who knows what a year may bring 
forth? The Senate is trying hard to find out how not 
to do it, and will probably do nothing toward a substan- 
tial revision of the tariff. Truth is, this country is 
given over to protection, and the Dems are about as 
bad as the Reps. The next House is quite likely to be 
Democratic, and I should not regret it. The fact is, 
the consumer is nohody. 

I have taken Arthur Parker's house in Detroit for 
the summer, though I can't take possession until July 
10, as I am booked to read a paper before the Maryland 
Bar Association on the 7th. I fear I shall miss you and 
Pond, who will probably be off on your vacations by that 
time. I have not visited Detroit, except for a few days, 
for nearly twenty years, and want to spend a season 
there. I am really very fond of the place, and don't want 
to lose touch with it entirely, though most of my old 
friends are in Elm wood. I understand you spent some 



CORKESPONDENCE 103 

time in Bermuda this spring, and I'd like to know how 
you fancied it. 

Glad you met the Harlans at Murray Bay. They are 
an interesting, popular, and distinguished looking fam- 
ily. The judge is getting pretty old (seventy-six), 
but has no intention of retiring. Strange how they 
all dislike it. Chief Judge CuUen has been here sub- 
mitting to an operation upon his eyes. I regard him 
as an unusually fine character. I met Governor Hughes 
several times last winter, and was much surprised by his 
sterling character. He seems to be as much loved by 
the people as he is hated by the politicians. Wish we 
had more such men in public life. 

I think we are soon coming face to face with a new 
political problem in the possible alliance with England 
as against Germany. The English are getting badly 
scared at Germany's naval preparations, and are looking 
about for friends. I think it would be a terrible thing 
for us if the Kaiser succeeded in wresting from her the 
sovereignty of the seas; this I really do not think there 
is much danger of. Do not believe we are called upon 
to act at present, but if a war should break out and an 
invasion of England be seriously threatened, our action 
would become of the utmost importance. The difficulty 
with the English is that they have not the capacity for 
making friends, but are adept in the gentle art of mak- 



104 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

ing enemies. The humblest of us hate to be patronised. 

Kirchner spent an evening with us a few weeks ago, 
and we enjoyed a very pleasant chat over Detroit people. 

I hope you are enjoying your years as well as I am. 
I have something to do every day, and never allow my- 
self to be bored with anything. If threatened with 
ennui I go to the Club and generally find intellectual 
companionship. 

With kind regards to Mrs, Kent, who left behind her 
here a most pleasant impression, believe me, 

Your attached friend, 

H. B. Brown. 

Washington, D. C, 

June 10, '09. 
My dear Kent: 

Thank you for the season ticket to the " Old Club." 
Never heard of it before under tliat name, but it seems 
to be at the Flats, which are always pleasant in summer. 
Shall take great pleasure in revisiting them. The 
doctor has been cutting me out of so many of the dietary 
pleasures of life of late, that I am beginning to ask my- 
self whether, after all, life is worth the living. But, 
thank heaven, he has not placed a ban upon whitefish. 

Loyally yours, 
H. B. Brown. 



COERESPONDENCE 105 

I read your admirable article upon Lothrop the other 
day. It is a most worthy tribute to a great man, who 
ought really to have been a greater in the estimation of 
the world. 

Washington, D. C, 

January 21, '10. 
Dear Brother Kent: 

I see our old friend Pond has finally paid the debt of 
nature, and from what I have learned of his condition, 
I imagine that death could not have been an unwelcome 
visitor. I hope you will write a memorial of him and 
send me a copy, as he was certainly an eminent lawyer, 
and his offhand opinions were as good as those of any 
man I ever knew. I think he would make a good sub- 
ject for a biographical sketch. 

I read your criticism of " President Hadley's Consti- 
tutional Views," in which you seem to have made a 
good point against him, although his error is a natural 
one for a layman to make. 

Hannis Taylor, a lawyer of this city, who is unearth- 
ing some new propositions which no one has ever heard 
of before, has recently discovered that Congress ex- 
ceeded its power in retroceding to Virginia that part 
of the District lying south of the Potomac upon the 
ground that tbe original cession constituted a tripartite 



106 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

contract between the United States, Maryland and Vir- 
ginia which could not be broken by two of the parties. 
Guess the Supreme Court will make short work of his 
proposition after sixty years of acquiescence. 

Hope you are as well and contented as I am. Have 
never enjoyed life more than this winter. I am " out " 
somewhere every day, participating in much of the gaiety 
with a consciousness that I am leaving no work undone 
to worry me. In fact I don't allow anything to worry 
me. 

Are you going South this winter? Should love to 
have you give us another call. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, I am. 

Sincerely yours, 

H. B. Brown. 

Washington, D. C, 

October 30, '10. 
Dear Brother Kent : 

I was very glad to receive your letter — indeed, was 
going to write you myself as soon as I received a certain 
paper, which I am going to send you when I get it. 

When you were in North Carolina last spring, I was 
probably in Augusta, Georgia, a delightful place where I 
met several Detroit people, including Mrs. Governor 
Baldwin and the Hutchings. It is upon these little 



CORRESPONDENCE 107 

outings I depend for much of the health and happiness 
I now enjoy. 

Last summer we spent in Europe — landing at Genoa 
— proceeding thence by rail and private carriage over 
the Alps and northward to The Hague, where I spent 
a few days with the Tribunal, and enjoyed its hos- 
pitality. We spent a month travelling in England, 
largely by carriage, which is our favourite method of 
locomotion. When I say that during the summer we 
slept at forty different hotels, you can judge that our 
halts were not long. 

I returned home with three pretty distinct impres- 
sions. (1) That the expense of living in Europe is from 
one-half to two-thirds of what it is at home, except per- 
haps in London and Paris. This is largely the cause 
of the immense exodus to Europe every year. 

(2) That the Kaiser is a constant menace to the 
peace of the world, and that he would like to be a 
mediaeval despot if he dared. He is thought by some 
of his subjects to be unbalanced mentally. It is not so 
much what he does that causes fear, as what he is con- 
stantly preparing to do, and compelling other nations 
to do. 

(3) That The Hague Tribunal has practically in- 
sured a continued peace between England and America, 
though with little effect upon the politics of Europe. 



108 MEMOIR OF HEXRY BILLINGS BROWN" 

Don't think it has saved any country a dollar of ex- 
pense in preparing for war. 

The decision in the fisheries case was most fortunate, 
as both parties claim to be victorious. The Court was 
a very handsome and imposing one to look upon, and 
the members impressed one with their dignity. 

At home politics seem to me in a very confused condi- 
tion, and I should not be surprised if there were a 
Democratic landslide next week, nor should I regret it 
much. I am out of all patience with Roosevelt, who is 
evidently talking himself to death. He is suffering the 
usual effects of flattery and adulation. And can you 
wonder at it ? Whitelaw Reid told me there were three 
kings in his house at one time to call on him. Nothing 
like it since Napoleon's day, and I fear he may yet find 
his St. Helena. 

Per contra, Taft seems to me to grow finer every day, 
and I hope for his re-election. Don't think there is any 
danger of Roosevelt's renomination. He should have 
kept quiet for a year or two at least. 

I have read a few short articles upon psychical re- 
searches, but have not taken up the books you spoke of, 
though I intend to do so yet. I am busier, perhaps, 
than you think, writing something every day, though to 
little purpose. I do not desire any continuous employ- 
ment, and am as happy as a man can be at my age. I 



COREESPONDENCE 109 

know that my work is done, that I have lost all am- 
bition and am living only in the present and the past. 
I am as fond of society and of dinners as ever, and occa- 
sionally appear at a public banquet. I made a specialty 
last summer of seeing something of the Pilgrim country, 
visiting Scrooby, Boston and Leyden as preliminary to 
the Mayflower banquet. I might easily rust out, but I 
will not permit myself to do so, if I can avoid it, I have 
company at my house all the time (four guests at pres- 
ent) to keep me cheerful, and if you go South next 
winter, I want you to repeat your visit here, if I can 
make things " jibe " to suit me. My first guest was a 
Scottish M.P,, whose peculiarities amused us much. 
He was not above the average Congressman in appear- 
ance and conduct. 

May you live many years yet, and happily. I have a 
selfish interest in your surviving me, as I want you to 
write a memorial which I have already skeletonised for 
your benefit. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, I am still 
Your loyal old friend, 

H. B. Brown. 

P. S. I am afraid that I am somewhat of an epi- 
curean — getting all the pleasure I can out of life, and 
(I hope) contributing a little something to the pleasure 



110 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

of others. Well! it will soon be over, for the night 
Cometh when no man can work. 

Washington, D.C, 

January 1, 1912. 
Dear Brother Kent: 

I have delayed answering your letters in order to pro- 
cure and send you the Congressional Record containing 
the debate upon the Abrogation of the Russian Treaty, — 
which I have done to-day under separate cover. 

In my former letter I gave you my reasons for think- 
ing that the conditions annexed to Section I applied only 
to the laws and ordinances prevailing in Russia, which 
I think is emphasised by the fact of the particular men- 
tion of the regulations in force concerning commerce. 
It seems through the debates that the first Section is the 
only one considered to be in dispute. (See Senator 
Smith, 476.) 

I confess I had overlooked the last clause of Article X. 

This Article deals with the distribution of personal 
and real property bequeathed or conveyed to American 
citizens, and provides that they shall be entitled to the 
same upon payment of legal dues. The final sentence 
is that " this Article " — not this Treaty — shall not 
derogate in any manner from the force of laws already 
published, etc., to prevent the emigration of his subjects. 
In view of the fact that the laws already prohibited the 



CORRESPONDENCE 111 

emigration of Russian subjects, it seems to me that it 
was intended to provide by tliis sentence that, in case the 
Govermnent should see fit to sequestrate the estates of 
emigrants, this sequestration should override as much of 
the Article as provided for the distribution of estates to 
American citizens. 

Both Senators Root and Lodge regard this as recog- 
nising the doctrine of indefeasible allegiance, and to 
constitute another ground for the abrogation of the 
Treaty as obsolete, in view of our laws. This may be so, 
but I do not think the final clause of this Article should 
be construed as limiting the express agreement contained 
in the first Article providing for the admission of Ameri- 
can citizens. 

Neither of the Senators who spoke on the subject at- 
tempted to connect the two Articles in any way, or to in- 
sist that the final sentence of Article X limited the right 
of American citizens to enter under Article I. If it did, 
then it would be possible for Russia to forbid the re- 
entrance of all Russians, Jews or Christians who had 
become naturalised under our laws. This would be a 
total refusal to recognise our power to naturalise Rus- 
sian subjects. 

My own view is expressed, as I stated in my former 
letter, in two articles from this week's OutlooJc, which 
I enclose, both of which assume that there is a debatable 



113 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

question under the Treaty wliich is clearly " justici- 
able " by The Hague Tribunal. It seems to me — and 
such, I understand from one of your articles is the 
opinion of Andrew White, as it certainly is of Roose- 
velt and of the Outlook — that the dignified way would 
have been to submit the case to The Hague Tribunal, 
obtain their decision on it, and I now think it would 
have been in our favour — leaving the defeated party 
to terminate the Treaty by giving notice. We are now 
terminating it without any assurance that it has been 
violated. Considering that Russia and ourselves were 
the principal signatories and originators of The Hague 
Tribunal, it does not seem to me to look well to take 
this step without submitting the matter first to the 
tribunal we have done so much to establish. 

All of this tends to reinforce my original proposition 
— that arbitration treaties are of little value when the 
feelings of either side become enlisted in an international 
question. To insist upon the adoption of the two treaties 
with Great Britain and France without amendment, and 
in the teeth of this notice, looks to me, as Roosevelt says, 
very much like hypocrisy. 

To adopt these treaties would be yielding to current 
popular sentiment, but as all wars involve the repudiation 
of treaty obligations, I see no reason why an arbitration 
treaty may not be repudiated as well as any other. 



CORRESPONDENCE 113 

I hope you will let me know when you intend to pass 
through Washington, as I want to arrange to hav« a 
visit from you here, if possible. I did intend to go 
South, but hardly think that I shall do so, though I get 
a little tired of the frivolities of society here. 

With kind regard to Mrs. Kent, and wishes for a 
happy New Year, I am 

Your old friend, 

H. B. B. 

Trouble with Sulzer is that he represents one of the 
slum districts of New York City and relies largely on 
Jewish votes. 

Washington, D. C, 

February 29, 1912. 
My dear Kent: 

Just as I was upon the point of answering your letter 
of January 25 from Atlantic City, I was suddenly 
knocked out by an attack of " edema of the lungs " 
(sounds well, doesn't it?), and for three or four days 
was in great danger, although the doctors did not tell 
me so. With a consulting doctor from Baltimore, two 
trained nurses, and a cylinder of oxygen, things looked 
very squally for a few days. 

At present I am officially well — no pain, no suffering, 
no new or acute disease — but practically a wreck — too 



114 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

weak to walk and too inert to be much interested in any- 
thing. I read a little, drive a little, sleep a good deal, 
but make very little headway. Much as I have enjoyed 
life the past few years, I surrender it without reluctance, 
the thread by which we hold it after seventy-five becomes 
so very slender, I am thinking of going South as soon 
as I can get away, but not yet ; too weak — too helpless. 

I am writing one other article which I will send you 
if I ever live to finish it. You will see that I am some- 
what depressed to-day, but by no means unhappy. I 
may yet live to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue in the 
Roosevelt band wagon. 

Your loyal old friend, 

H. B. B. 

Camden, S. C, 

March 22, 1912. 
My dear Kent: 

I have purposely delayed answering your letter of 
March 2 until I could come South, where I was sure 
of plenty of leisure. My last birthday was the first 
within my memory where I did not note my excellent 
health, but my seventy-sixth was too much for me. I 
am slowly recuperating and have regained my appetite, 
but am still weak and inert. I feel that I have grown 
old (which was quite unnecessary), and am more de- 



CORRESPONDENCE 115 

crepit. I thought a month ago I was going to give you 
a job " right off," but I may hold on a little yet. One 
lesson I have learned from this experience — never to 
spend another winter north of the Potomac. I doubt 
whether I shall spend another anywhere. 

After much doubt and hesitation we concluded to come 
here, and are much pleased with the experiment. Cam- 
den is a high class old Southern village in the usual 
state of trnthrift but with some fine old mansions. The 
hotel, originally a planter's home, is excellent, and we 
have rooms directly over the front, and overlooking a 
fine old garden with a pine forest near by for strolling 
purposes. Among the guests are the Fletchers, Mr. and 
Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Maynard, Mrs. Freer, Mr. Atwater, 
all of which makes it agreeable for me. If you are 
ever in search of an " intermediate " resort, I recom- 
mend it highly. The house is full, but the end of the 
season is near. 

The weather, which changed the very day we came 
down, could not be finer. Garden full of flowers and 
singing birds and much to delight the eye. We hope to 
remain here until April 7, and then return home. My 
wife did receive your letter, but, as I was well enough, 
handed it to me and I did not notice it was addressed 
to her. 

I fully sympathise with your remarks about death, 



116 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

which, if one has lived long enough to have honourably 
completed his work, I consider as great a blessing as life. 
Only think if the power to die were completely suspended 
for only a decade. The world would be filled with a lot 
of incompetent, useless people whom the next generation 
would be obliged to support. They would probably do 
as the savages used to — kill us all. Death, which seems 
so horrible at twenty-five, loses all its terrors at seventy- 
five, and ought to be welcomed rather than feared. And 
these last years can be made so interesting picking up and 
disposing of the tangled threads of a lifetime. 

I am still interested in reading about politics, though, 
of course, without mingling in its activities. I feel 
positively humiliated at the way Roosevelt is conducting 
himself. It illustrates how impossible it is for a man 
who has once been a popular idol to content himself with 
a private life. His boom is collapsing even quicker than 
I expected. His only salvation now is to endorse Taft 
and take the stump himself; it is not too late for that. 
His defeat in North Dakota this week by such a man as 
La Follette must have been especially mortifying. 

I am still strong in my confidence in Taft, though I 
regret the modern habit of presidents taking the stump 
in their own behalf. It lacks dignity, and their place 
of duty is Washington. 

I read your paper on Direct Government and agree to 



CORRESPONDENCE 117 

its main propositions, but the remedy you suggest on 
page 9 for getting rid of corrupt Judges by a commission 
of experts strikes me as cumbersome as impeachment. I 
am myself a believer in the Massachusetts doctrine of 
removal by the Governor upon the address of both 
Houses of the Legislature. Tliis I believe has always 
worked well, and while in practice it may be abused, it 
has never been so. A judge who cannot command a 
majority of at least one House ought to be removed on 
general principles. I take it no one would be removed 
without some chance of being heard, though no formal 
provision is made. 

I am curious to know where you will spend the sum- 
mer, and will try to see you. I have written one paper 
myself this season which will probably be out early in 
the summer. Give kind regards to Mrs. Kent. 

Well, good-bye, old boy. May we both of us find 
something to console and amuse us in the evening of our 
days, and when the inevitable guest arrives I hope we 
may be able to meet him with cheerful countenance, and 
as he knocks at the door for admission to reply as did 
Colonel Newcomb, " Adsum." 

Your loyal and affectionate old friend, 

H. B. B. 



118 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Camden, S. C, 

April 3, '13. 
My dear Kent: 

Thank you for your letter. I learned that you were 
at Tryon within an hour or two after I had posted my 
letter, but too late to recall it. I knew it would be 
forwarded to you. I fear the scheme of dropping on 
our way home to visit Tryon is impracticable, as I have 
already bought and paid for my tickets, and engaged 
space in the sleeper for next Sunday night. 

Besides, while we are not far apart as the crow flies, 
we are quite distant as man travels. There are changes 
to be made, and delays and discomforts to be encountered, 
that would consume an entire day. I have found travel- 
ling in the South most annoying and trains never on 
time. 

Our prospect of meeting at Seal Harbor next sum- 
mer seems much brighter. I am planning to spend a 
part of the season somewhere on Mount Desert Island, 
and if when your plans are perfected you will let me 
know, I think I can arrange to meet you. I have two or 
three places there in contemplation. 

I see Roosevelt has given up his recall of judges and 
now comes out for the Massachusetts plan of removal 
by address. As I wrote you, I believe this is sound, and 



CORRESPONDENCE 119 

have long advocated it. But his campaign seems to be 
degenerating into mere bluster. 

I fear the Senate has made a grave political mistake 
in failing to oust Lorimer and Stephenson from their 
seats. If tlie people become satisfied not only that sena- 
tors are corruptly elected, but that the senators will stand 
in together to keep them there, it will give a tremendous 
impetus to the movement for popular election. I confess 
it has shaken me considerably. I regard the Senate as 
now on trial itself. I am afraid it has blundered. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, 

Your loyal friend, 

H. B. Brown. 



Washington, D. C, 

May 20, '12. 

Hello ! Hello ! Here I have been bracing myself for 
a fortnight to write you, when your letter was handed in 
this morning. And now about our summer plans. 

We intend to leave here June 17, spend a day in New 
Haven attending our last class meeting, then cruise 
about the neighbourhood until after July 4, when we shall 
go up to the Samoset at Rockland for a week or two, 
when we thought to meet you at Seal Harbor, where the 
widows of Bishop MacKay Smith and Justice Matthews 



120 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

are also going, but that second flight of stairs looks as 
formidable to me as it does to Mrs. Kent. 

So our plans at present do not reach beyond the Samo- 
set, where we'd be very glad to meet you. I don't 
imagine it is any more fashionable there than at other 
first class hotels on the coast, not so much so as at Bar 
Harbor. I never did fancy roughing it much, and in 
my old age have got to be somewhat of a Sybarite. 

Am going to postpone discussing the political situa- 
tion till after the Ohio election to-morrow. 

Wednesday. 

Well, I'm afraid the election in Ohio eliminates Taft 
as a presidential candidate. A man who can't carry his 
own State could hardly be considered an available man. 
I'm very, very sorry, because Taft is really a splendid 
fellow. How glad he'd be to take a seat on the Su- 
preme Bench. 

Roosevelt, whose boom I thought had collapsed, is 
certainly a marvellous politician. His victory in Illinois 
was a revolution for him, and I have ceased to predict. 

But, after all, what boots it to us? I have no fear for 
the safety of the country even with T. R. or Bryan. 
We are vidth our modern nostrums passing through the 
chicken-pox, measles, and scarlet fever stage, and will 
ultimately emerge into a healthy manhood. I am no 



COEEESPONDENCE 121 

pessimist and have great confidence in the ultimate good 
sense of the people. The acquittal of Lorimer will prob- 
ably result in the election of senators by the people and 
a lowering of senatorial standards in favour of the man 
with the loud voice, full purse and empty head. But we 
can stand it. 

Kind regards to Mrs. Kent, and hope she will find 
satisfactory quarters. Your loyal friend, 

H. B. Brown. 

Washington, D. C, 

October 5, '13. 
My dear Kent: 

Apropos of our talk about woman suffrage in New 
Jersey, I send you a copy of my paper in which you will 
find a sentence on the subject on page 14. 

It seems that in 1776 a constitution was adopted con- 
ferring the right to vote upon " all inhabitants " possess- 
ing certain property qualifications (very likely an inad- 
vertence). At first women did not vote, but in 1797 a 
bill was passed in which the right to vote was given at 
the precinct in which " he or she " resided. Under this, 
seventy-five women voted for members of the Legislature 
at Elizabeth, at a close election, and at the presidential 
election in 1800 women voted generally through the 
State. 



122 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Finally, at a special election to locate a county seat in 
1806, so many fraudulent female votes were cast that the 
Legislature in 1807 not only set aside the election, but 
passed an act declaring the true sense and meaning of 
the Constitution, to be that suffrage was confined " to 
free white male citizens." This was afterwards incor- 
porated in the Constitution in 1844. 

In defence of the 1807 Act, which would probably be 
treated now as unconstitutional, it may be said that 
Marbury vs. Madison had been only recently decided, and 
that it was still thought that the Legislature could inter- 
pret the Constitution as well as the Courts. Its action, 
however, does not interfere with your idea that the peo- 
ple never give up a power they have once possessed. But 
how does this tally with the short ballot, and the govern- 
ment of the cities by commissions, where all the executive 
officers are appointed. 

My facts about suffrage are gathered from an elaborate 
" History of Woman's Suffrage," in two volumes, by 
Susan B. Anthony. Vol. 1, page 447. 

If you want to learn what a set of corrupt scoundrels 
the Federal judges are, and have ever been, read Gus- 
tavus Myers' " History of the Supreme Court " from a 
socialist point of view. He has not a good word for one 
of us. He is universal and unsparing in his denuncia- 



COREESPONDENCE 123 

tions. It is really quite amusing, tliough he overshoots 
his mark. 

On leaving the Samoset we brought up at the Grama- 
tan at Bronxville, near New York, and found it delight- 
ful and very reasonable in prices. We also spent a fort- 
night in Atlantic City before returning home. My 
health has been steadily improving, and I am better 
than for a year past. Shall try Watkins again next 
summer if I live. 

I heard Governor Wilson make a non-political speech 
at Atlantic City and was charmed with him. I have no 
fear of him as president, though my preference is still 
for Taft. Roosevelt's chances are steadily declining, if 
he ever had any. 

I think Taft is clearly right in his construction of the 
Canal treaty, and the English papers are gradually, 
though most reluctantly, coming around to his view. 
It's an old principle of the common law that no one can 
squeal until he is hurt. 179 U. S. 405. As England 
can't engage in our coasting trade she has no right to 
complain. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, believe me. 

Your older than ever friend, 

H. B. Brown. 



124 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Washington, D. C, 

January 4, 1913. 
My dear Kent: 

I was very glad to receive your letter of December 27, 
though I really don't know on which side lay the obliga- 
tion. I presume you are right, as I don't recollect writ- 
ing you since the election, which I fancy was no surprise 
to either of us. I am myself quite content, as I think 
in a free government there ought to be occasionally a 
change of leadership. 

We are intending to leave here January 12 for Miami, 
Florida, to stay until after inauguration. You see how 
completely I am getting " out of it," after being in it 
for over twenty years. There is much humbug and 
much " climbing " in Washington society, but withal a 
substrata of solid good sense. People are generally 
taken for what they appear to be — not for what they 
were at home. A good tailor accepts nobody's previous 
measurement. Of course, there is much bridge playing, 
etc., among the smart set, whose doings do not interest 
us. 

Our mutual friend Addie Mitchell dined with us on 
Monday. 

This leads me to congratulate you on the defeat of 
woman suffrage. This seems to me much more impor- 
tant than that the result of the election, as it would be 



CORRESPONDENCE 125 

impossible to disestablish it, once it became a political 
issue. I admired Senator Bailey's recent speech in de- 
nunciation of Oregonism, and even more Senator Lodge's 
on the Constitution. On the whole we'll get along for 
another four years, and that's quite enough for me. 

My own health is fair, though I am feeling the weak- 
ness of age and the probability of losing my sight, but 
my spirits are unbroken, and I hope not to die a-whim- 
pering at my fate. 

How wise in Taft (God bless him) to take the Yale 
professorship ! It leaves all possibilities before him, and 
little chance to make enemies. 

Continue to address me here, as your letters, always 
welcome, will be forwarded. I will at least send you a 
card from Miami on arriving. 

Well, good-bye, old boy. With the best of luck, as 
long a life as you can enjoy, and my respectful saluta- 
tions to Mrs. Kent. 

Your old pal, 

H. B. B. 



Sunday. 
I think a great whole-souled man spoke in Taft's 
speech advocating the arbitration of the Canal question 
last night. 



126 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN 

Miami, Florida, 
January 18, 1913. 
My dear Kjent: 

Here we are in our winter quarters, for a month at least 

— possibly more. A delightful spot — temperature sev- 
enty to eighty — summer clothing — excellent hotel — 
nice people — pleasant driving and boating — a really 
Northern town in the most tropical of Southern States. 
Fresh ripe, untravelled strawberries grown in the suburbs 
of the city — none of your berries picked green and 
ripened by 1000 miles of carriage in refrigerator cars 

— but the real thing, and never a suspicion of unripe- 
ness. Can't I make your mouth water ? 

Bound to say prices are high. A hundred and five 
dollars per week for two people and bath, but the sea- 
son is very short — not over six weeks — and prices 
must be high to get a return. City has 13,000 people 
and is a paradise. Guests largely young men of our age 
and a sprinkling of old tabbies. Men look very com- 
fortable, but not fashionable, like Palm Beach. 

I think the action of the Senate in the Archbald case 
was most fortunate. I know little of the merits, but the 
result shows that impeachment is still a live remedy, and 
that it will be administered without fear or favour. It 
disposed of the objection that it had become obsolete, or 
too cumbersome for practical purposes. It is valuable 



COERESPONDENCE 127 

too as showing that almost anything that shows a volun- 
tary judicial unfitness may be treated as an impeachable 
"misdemeanour." I consider the precedent as of great 
value to the public, and to the judiciary. It will prob- 
ably put a stop to judges " dickering " with cases pend- 
ing before them. I look for a big row in the Democratic 
camp pretty soon after assembling of Congress. The 
chiefs will try to overawe Wilson, and will find they have 
their match. It promises to be an interesting session. I 
want to see the Democratic vote on a bill to abolish the 
tariff on cotton, tobacco, and citrus fruits. 

Suppose you must be leaving home pretty soon. 
Where shall you bring up ? This will be delightful for 
the next month. Hope you will try it. I'm wearing a 
white flannel suit to dinner. Geo. L. Burrows of Sag- 
inaw is the only Michigan man. 

Miami, Florida, 
February 13, 1913. 
My dear Kent: 

I think the post office must be up to its old tricks, as 
your letter must have crossed a newspaper clipping I 
sent you last Sunday to show you that I am on deck 
still, though somewhat the worse for wear. Truth is, I 
have picked up quite a little in this delightful climate, 
where one can sit outdoors till midnight in white flannels 



128 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

and then go to bed with nothing but a sheet over you. 
Thermometer has gauged from 70° to 82° almost every 
day. Burrows of Saginaw is here, and the Bairds of 
Detroit. 

I am so well myself that I am almost superstitious 
about confessing it, for fear of a disaster. But I agree 
with you that March would probably be too warm here 
and that St. Augustine would be safer. "We are going up 
to Palm Beach next Monday, the 16th, for a fortnight, 
and if you could be at St. Augustine as early as the 5th 
or 6th, I would meet you there at your hotel and spend 
a day or two before going on to Jekyl Island, where we 
are thinking of making a short stay before going home. 

This old hotel is full of old men doing exactly what I 
am doing — not a blessed thing, and getting all the com- 
fort out of life we can, with the help of the most delicious 
grape fruit and strawberries ever tasted, while we hear of 
zero weather in Michigan and men being frozen to death. 
I do hope you will visit Miami some time. Southern 
Florida is a piece of the tropics which the good Lord has 
kindly injected into our territory. I regard as tropical 
any place to which the palm is indigenous. 

Glad Mrs. Kent is taking a hand among the antis. 
They must bestir themselves or the suffragettes will sweep 
the weak-kneed off their feet. I regard it as a serious 
matter, but fire must be fought with fire. 



CORRESPONDENCE 129 

I have been offered $100 for my Scot. Dillon, but I 
make the Frenchman's reply to all : " If it's worth that 
to you, it's worth as much to me." I'll neither buy nor 
sell. 

I'm glad they passed the income tax amendment, 
though I don't believe it was necessary, as the Court 
would now dispose of the Pollock case in short order. 
Bryan seemed much pleased at my allusion to it — not 
so much so at my denunciation of the recall of judges. . 

I am inclined to think the popular election of senators 
will result in an increase of rich men instead of a dim- 
inution, because they own or control the papers, and the 
papers own us. Most of 'em are purchaseable. I don't 
fear the democratization of the Senate so long as they 
have dollars to Jingle in their pockets. I agree most 
people are fools. 

With kind regards and cheers for Mrs. Kent, believe 
me still. 

Your venerable old pal, 

H. B. B. 

Washington, D. C, 

April 17, '13. 
My dear Kent: 

In the first place I want to congratulate you and Mrs. 
Kent upon the stunning blow you administered to the 



130 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

suffragettes at the last election — a blow which ought to 
keep them quiet for a year or two at least. I fancy the 
antis of the Pankhurst crowd in England are not only 
disgusted with the people here, but " queered " the cause 
here. 

I was a little afraid of the result, but the size of the 
majority staggered me. The suffragettes here, who had 
come to besiege Congress, were so confident that they had 
engaged guns and rockets, and, of course, there is much 
wailing and lamentation. Sorry to see most of the 
D. A. R. delegates from Detroit are suffragettes. While 
I am still opposed to suffrage, I have ceased to fear it. 
Though it has accomplished nothing, it has really done no 
harm. The difficulty is that when woman wants any- 
thing, she wants it very badly — she wants it right off, 
and she will stand at nothing short of murder to get it — 
but when obtained she begins to lose all interest in 
it. This has been the history of suffrage, both here and 
abroad. Apropos of this I send you one or two clippings 
which you need not return. 

If they should succeed in winning suffrage, I should 
fear that ultimately they might attack our domestic life, 
and go in for trial marriages, divorces at will, and per- 
haps free love, though at present they would repudiate it. 

I have been much amused, and somewhat alarmed, at 
the first fruits of the popular election of senators, viz. : 



COKEESPONDENCE 131 

a conspiracy to get Eoot, confessedly our ablest senator, 
defeated, and Hearst installed in his place. Hearst 
has the support of Jno. R. McLean (another of the same 
ilk and worth more than Hearst), who publishes lauda- 
tory editorials in the Post, and sets up his paper as the 
Hearst organ. As I wrote you, this amendment is 
bound to create conspiracies between the bosses and the 
newspaper to bamboozle the public, who are very gullible. 
This is reform with a vengeance! From the earliest 
times the people have been used as tools to establish the 
worst of despotisms. 

I have taken quite a fancy to President Wilson, who 
certainly means well, and made quite a popular hit in 
delivering his message orally. But he has a world of 
trouble ahead to get his tariff through. . . . 

I don't altogether sympathise with this howl against 
the Vice-President, as I have always believed that the 
State had the inherent right to regulate the descent of 
property, and that in certain very rare cases of multi- 
millionaires it should exercise this right, to prevent too 
great absorption of wealth by a few. 

While we have doubtless troublous times ahead of us, 
I am still optimistic, and believe the country is in much 
less danger than it was in 1861, when I was inclined to 
pessimism. We have a happy way of getting into the 
tight spots, and then getting out of them. Witness the 



132 MEMOIR OF HENEY BILLINGS BROWN" 

greenback and free silver crazes, and the late tendency 
to short ballots and municipal commission. 

But enough of this. Where did you finally go last 
winter, and where shall you bring up next summer? I 
escaped my Florida with nothing worse than a slight 
cold, though I am conscious of the fact that I am a little 
older, a little thinner, a little weaker, a little clumsier, 
and a little nearer the outer door than I was a year ago. 
But I am perfectly contented with my lot. I am hesi- 
tating now whether I will accept an invitation to deliver 
the annual address to the Indiana Bar Association next 
summer. There are pros and there are cons. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, and the hope of 
hearing from you at your convenience, I am, 

Your ancient crony, 

H. B. B. 

Washington, D. C, 

May 26, '13. 
My dear Kent: 

Have just read your article upon dissatisfaction with 
our judges, which, as you indicate, always has existed, 
and which I say always will exist so long as there are ( 1 ) 
unfit judges, and (2) litigants to be dissatisfied with 
decisions against them. There is absolutely no remedy 



COREESPONDENCE 133 

for it; the public opinion in the end will always stand 
by an intelligent and incorruptible judiciary. 

There is a large class of people in our country who love 
change for the sake of change, or who think they may 
profit by it individually. These ideas are a perpetual 
source of trouble, but, of course, all wrong. There are 
always a few in the District who are clamouring for a 
change to a popular government, but the phantom of 
negro suffrage stands inexorably in their path. No suf- 
frage without nigger — no suffrage, no nigger. 

I fancy you are leaning more and more toward short, 
pithy sentences. Good thing. I always liked them — 
sometimes use them. The tone is right. It is incon- 
ceivable that we can live without a judiciary. Shall it 
be composed of an educated class, or the mob ? But one 
answer is possible. 

Where are you minded to spend the summer? It is 
not altogether easy to choose. My own health is be- 
coming so uncertain I do not dare to plan. We may 
choose Watkins again and may remain at home. Main 
object is not to fall into innocuous desuetude. But, 
after all, what's a few months more or less? I wrote 
you quite a long screed about the time you returned from 
the South, and have little to add. Old age is not so bad, 
if it only comes in the natural way. 



134 MEMOIE OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Later, May 38. 

Hello ! Just as I was finishing your letter up, yours 
of the 26th has dropped down upon me. We seem to 
have spent a week or two in Florida dodging each other 
quite successfully. We were at Sea Breeze, adjoining 
Daytona, from February 36 to March 13, and drove up 
to Hotel Ormond to call on Judges Shiras and Reilly 
the first week in March. We spent a day at Jackson- 
ville, but did not halt at Savannah, which is much finer. 
You seem to have had plenty to occupy, though not so 
much to amuse, you. 

I certainly envy your ability to walk as you do. My 
own health has been very bad, and I can do nothing until 
afternoon. Don't know whether it is " spring depres- 
sion " aggravated by old age, or old age with a spring 
depression annex — the last is much the worst. The 
doctor speaks more encouragingly than I feel. He may 
be right. If so, I may be good for another year. 

We intend spending six weeks at Watkins — then, 
anywhere but Miami is too cold for my old bones. 

I rather like Wilson's methods so far as heard from. 

I notice you have changed your office, or is it a mere 
change of name? You must have been Moffat's oldest 
inhabitant. Well, good-bye, 

H. B. B. 

Good luck for the summer. 



CORRESPONDENCE 135 

The New Ocean House, 

SwAMPSCOTT, Massachusetts, 

July 30, 1913. 
My dear Kent: 

I received your letter of the 10th a few days before 
leaving Watkins, and thought I'd postpone a reply till 
I settled in my next place. I went to Watkins feeling very 
weak and miserable, but left there after a six weeks' 
" cure " comparatively quite well, though not strong 
(never shall be), and weighing only a hundred and fifty- 
six pounds. You'd believe it if you saw my " shrunk 
shanks." In fifteen years I have lost fifty pounds, and 
am fairly entered upon the " lean and slippered panta- 
loon " age. But, thank God ! I haven't lost my spirits, 
and when I came away a little " circle " of story tellers 
addressed me a farewell poem. True, it was the purest 
doggerel, but as an evidence that I was not a bore I 
quite prize it. Detroit still contributes the largest con- 
tingent to Watkins. 

Next, here — a pleasant village and an excellent hotel, 
though guests all strangers. But it is a fire trap, and 
you may next hear of us — gone up in smoke. Drove 
over to Nahant yesterday. Alas! Alas! Nahant has 
lost its glory ! No longer the famous resort of fifty years 
ago, when I ran over from Cambridge to visit it — but 
down at the heels and out at the elbows and knees. 



136 MEMOIR OF HENRY BILLINGS BROWN 

Plenty of fine houses, but an indescribable something 
which betokens that fashion has fled to Mount Desert 
and Cape Ann. It has gone the way of Long Beach and 
Saratoga. 

The Mexican situation is in such a muddle I don't 
know what to say. While de facto governments are en- 
titled to recognition, ought they not to give some evi- 
dence of perpetuity, or at least of the general acqui- 
escence of their subjects ? Ought we to recognise Huerta, 
who seems to be on the brink of a precipice? I don't 
think we ought to throw our influence one way or the 
other, but let them fight it out. There is but one way in 
which the Spanish-American people are united. They 
all hate us — always have, and always will, and the more 
we do for them the more bitter their hatred. I dislike 
the idea of intervention, but we may be driven to it yet. 

With kind regards to Mrs. Kent, believe me. 

Your loyal friend, 

H. B. B. 

I fear that Bryan has the sacra Fames which has been 
the undoing of many public men. 



THE END 






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